Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall's Infamous Affair Couldn't Distract From Their Massive Age Gap

Hollywood loves a good romance, and the love shared by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall continues to stand out as one of the greatest in the history of Tinseltown, even despite the massive age gap between the two stars. Bogart and Bacall first met in 1943, when he was 44, and she was 19. To put it in perspective, Bogart starred in his fourth Broadway play on September 1, 1924, and two weeks later, in the same city, Bacall was born.  

Age gaps aren't uncommon in Hollywood, and neither is how Bacall and Bogart's romance began: with a secret celebrity affair. The two met on the set of "Passage to Marseille" in 1943 before co-starring in Bacall's first film, 1944's "To Have and Have Not," which gave Bacall her most famous line, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Three weeks into filming, they kissed for the first time.  Bacall's mother wasn't happy that her daughter was dating not just a much older man, but a much older married man. In 2014, Bacall told Parade that her mother was "furious" about the relationship, saying to her, "He's going to think you're just a loose girl."

When he met Bacall, Bogart was married to Mayo Methot (his third wife and her third husband), but the relationship was already coming to an end. Called "The Battling Bogarts" by the press, Bogart and Methot were both heavy drinkers, and often fought — it was even reported that Methot had once stabbed Bogart.  In early December 1944, Bogart moved out of his home, and Methot divorced him on May 10, 1945. Bogart and Bacall wed less than two weeks later on May 21. You can be sure Bacall's makeup was perfect.

While the romance of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart may have started with a scandal — and a very large age gap — it was a true love, though Bacall admitted that part of it came from her longing for a father figure. As she wrote in her autobiography, "I wanted to give Bogie so much that he hadn't had. All the love that had been stored inside of me all my life for an invisible father, for a man." Bacall and Bogart would go on to appear in five films together.

In 1949, the couple would welcome their first child, Stephen, who was named after the character his father played in "To Have and Have Not." Bacall was 24 when she gave birth, making her younger than Bogart was when she herself was born. They would have their second child, a daughter named Leslie, in 1952. Sadly, Bogart would be diagnosed with esophageal cancer just a few years later and died in January 1957 at the age of 57 years. He had withered away to only 80 pounds by the end. Bogart was cremated, and mixed with his ashes was a whistle Bacall gave to him with the engraving, "If you want anything, just whistle."

In 2011, Bacall spoke to Vanity Fair about her marriage to Bogart, saying, "I fairly often have thought how lucky I was. I knew everybody because I was married to Bogie, and that 25-year difference was the most fantastic thing for me to have in my life." Bacall went on to marry Jason Robards in 1961 and had her third child, Sam Robards, that same year. The couple divorced in 1969. Of this marriage, Bacall was not as nostalgic, telling Vanity Fair, "I think Jason, unfortunately, was not good enough. I wish he had been." It's not his fault — who could ever follow Humphrey Bogart?