On screen, Katharine Hepburn played the feisty woman who always walked off into the sunset with the man of her dreams. When it came to real-life romances, however, Hepburn rarely got her happy ending. It seems that chasing emotionally unavailable men was a pattern that haunted the actress until her death in 2003.
Photo by Bettmann, Getty Images / George Rinhart, Corbis, Getty Images / Hulton Archive, Getty Images / Bettmann, Getty Images
But of all the romances that have emerged from Hollywood, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn’s public love affair is the most complicated. From nightly binges and inner demons to those infamous rumors surrounding their relationship, we’re telling the story of one of Hollywood’s most twisted affairs. But to get the full picture, we must first take a look back at the events that took place before Tracy and Hepburn got together.