Player’s Gonna Play
Nowadays, Hughes is mostly known for his wealth and madness. He may have been a troubled loner later in life, but, in his prime, he was quite the ladies’ man. During his time in Hollywood, he was linked to countless starlets, and his list of women reached legendary status. He dated plenty of beautiful actresses from Ava Gardner to Katharine Hepburn. He even scandalously dated sisters, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine.
Ginger Rogers and Howard Hughes, engaged, in 1937. Photo by Everett Collection / Shutterstock
But the truth is even darker. He was dating de Havilland when he hit on Fontaine, who rejected him and told her sister what had happened. Instead of being mad at Hughes, de Havilland was angry with Fontaine. Hughes caused a wedge between the sisters and likely contributed to their infamous sibling feud.