Menage a Trois is one in which three people are in a committed relationship. Here we make a list of famous people who were in a menage a trois.
1. Charlotte Rampling - Bryan Southcombe - Randall Laurence
Charlotte Rampling was living in a menage a trois, with her manager Bryan Southcombe and Randall Laurence, a male model. She married her manager Southcombe in 1972 after she became pregnant with her son, Barnaby. She used deny it for decades when asked about this arrangement, which she finally confessed to in an interview with The Guardian in 2021.
2. William Moulton Marston - Elizabeth Holloway - Olive Byrne
William Moulton Marston, the creator of female comic book hero Wonder Woman, was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife, Elizabeth Holloway, and their domestic partner, Olive Byrne. Elizabeth Marston had two children, Peter and Olive Ann, while Olive Byrne also gave birth to two of William’s children, Byrne and Donn. Olive’s two sons from William were adopted by the Marston couple and Olive remained part of the family even after William’s death. The character Wonder Woman was fashioned after these two women. Their relationship was the subject of the movie, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017).
3. Max Ernst - Paul Éluard - Gala Dalí
Paul Éluard, the French poet who is one of the founders of the Surrealist movement, his wife Gala Dalí and surrealist painter Max Ernst, were in a ménage à trois for three years from 1921 to 1924. Paul who was torn between his love for Gala and his friendship for Ernst, finally snapped in 1924 and disappeared without telling anyone. He had contemplated suicide. His depression materialized in a collection of poems titled, “mourir de na pas mourir” (To die not to die). The triumvirate ended their affair soon after.
4. Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre Bergé - Victoire Doutreleau
The French model Victoire Doutreleau was involved with legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his business partner Pierre Bergé, at the same time for three years in the 1960s. Victoire who was a muse of Saint Laurent, and was the only woman he considered marrying. She opened Saint Laurent’s first fashion show in 1962.
5. Marguerite Duras - Robert Antelme - Dionys Mascolo
The French filmmaker, Marguerite Duras, created a ménage à trois when she started an affair with the writer Dionys Mascolo, while her husband, Robert Antelme, the French resistance fighter was imprisoned by the occupying German force in Buchenwald. She acted on the thought that being faithful to her husband when he was in prison was absurd. Robert who barely survived his time in prison was nursed to back to health by Duras, after his release when the war ended. She divorced him once he recovered and married Dionys in 1947. Duras wrote the book La Douleur, about Robert’s return from Buchenwald.
6. Augustus John - Ida Nettleship - Dorelia McNeill
The Welsh painter Augustus John and his Ida Nettleship lived in a ménage à trois with Dorelia McNeill, from 1905 until Ida’s death in 1907. Augustus had five kids with his wife Ida. After Ida’s death, Augustus and Dorelia, lived together for the rest of their lives. The couple had four children of their own, though they never married. Dorelia served as a model for Augustus’ paintings. Though he was married to Ida and had five kids with her, there was no mention of her in his 1952 memoir, Chiaroscuro.
7. Randolph Churchill - R. A. Bevan - Natalie Bevan
Randolph Churchill, the only son British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, got involved with British artist, Natalie Bevan, while she was married to Robert Bevan. Their affair began in 1957 and lasted until Randolph’s death by heart attack in 1968.
8. Friedrich Engels - Lizzie Burns - Mary Burns
Friedrich Engels, the German philosopher known for co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848) with Karl Marx, lived in a ménage à trois with his mistress Mary Burns and her sister Lizzie Burns. Mary who was a lifelong partner of Engels until her sudden death of a heart disease in 1963, never married as they considered marriage a bourgeois institution. Lizzie who began staying the couple as a housekeeper, eventually became Engels primary partner after Mary’s death. Engels and Lizzie married on 11 September 1878, hours before her death. No images of Mary Burns are known to exist.
9. Carl Jung - Emma Jung - Toni Wolff
Psychoanalyst Carl Jung was in relationship with his patient, Toni Wolff, who later became his primary collaborator, while being married to his wife Emma Jung. His wife was not happy with his affair which initially caused tensions in their marriage but eventually they reached some sorts of understanding. Their affair began in 1913 and lasted until Jung suffered a heart attack in 1944. Upon Toni’s death in 1953, he did not attend her memorial but his wife Emma did.
