Divorced Shirley MacLaine's Basis For Marriage Is 'Sleeping With Other People'

Shirley MacLaine has revealed that her basis for a long-lasting marriage is to sleep with other people.

MacLaine was married to businessman Steve Parker from 1954 to 1982, but they were known for having an open relationship.

They divorced after she discovered that he had been paying large sums of cash to his girlfriend from MacLaine’s account, but apparently remained on good terms.

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Speaking to Jess Cagle on Sirius FM about the open marriage, the Hollywood legend said: “I guess you would say (we) ‘practiced an open marriage’ in 1954, which was another lifetime.

“No one understood it. We did. He lived in Japan basically. I lived in America working, and this and that. We’d meet up, always great friends, traveled sometimes together.

“I think that’s the basis for a long-lasting marriage, if you really want to do such a thing.

“I would say better to stay friends and we don’t have enough time to talk about the sexuality of all. I was very open about all of that and so was he.”

Indeed, MacLaine had well-publicised affairs with the likes of Robert Mitchum, Danny Kaye and Yves Montand.

MacLaine and Parker did have a child together, however, the actress Sachi Parker who was born in 1956, two years into their marriage.

She went on: “I’m having a relationship now, that is teaching me about possessiveness with intimacy and it’s with my three dogs. I adore my dogs.

“And I’ve had to get a dog nanny/food lady for the dogs because I’ve been working so much.”

MacLaine has courted controversy in recent years for some of her views.

Last year she was slammed for suggesting that the karma and reincarnation were the cause of some of the most horrific tragedies in history, including the Holocaust.

She also suggested that Professor Stephen Hawking caused himself to develop his disability subconsciously, so that he could 'free his mind’ to work on his studies.

MacLaine also claims that she herself is reincarnated, having previously been a Japanese geisha, 'an orphan reared by elephants’, and, while a resident of Atlantis, the brother of a 35,000-year-old spirit named Ramtha.

Image credits: Getty/Rex Features