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What Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall Thought of Their May-December Marriage

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Updated: | Originally published:

Married, read the heading before the brief write-up in TIME: “Humphrey Bogart, 45, cinema’s surly, frog-voiced bad man; and Cinemactress Lauren Bacall, 20; he for the fourth time, she for the first; in Mansfield, Ohio.”

The wedding, which took place 70 years ago, on May 21, 1945, made official one of the 20th century’s best-loved on- and off-screen romances—despite a two-and-a-half-decade age gap.

But, while news outlets didn’t obsess about the age difference in the way they probably would today—TIME didn’t editorialize at all about their ages, unless you count a 1969 essay titled “In Praise of May-December Marriages”—it didn’t pass unnoticed. According to A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax’s biography Bogart, Bogart’s wife at the time he began his affair with Bacall, the actress Mayo Methot, referred to Bacall as “your daughter” when talking with her estranged husband.

See Photos From Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s Wedding Day

Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfield.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Bogart and Bacall cut the wedding cake.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
BOGART/BACALL WEDDING
Caption from LIFE. Lauren Bacall feeds wedding cake to her tough-guy groom, Humphrey Bogart, after their marriage ceremony in Ohio.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Bacall tosses her bouquet to an eager crowd.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Bogart gives his bride a kiss on the cheek.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall share a sneaky moment on their wedding day.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfeld.
Newlyweds smile for the camera.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Novelist Louis Bromfield (L) with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and their guests at their wedding.
Novelist Louis Bromfield (L) with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and their guests at their wedding.Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Bogart was also consumed by the age difference. As Bacall recounted in her autobiography By Myself, it was “never out of [Bogart’s] thoughts” while they courted. Bacall, however, paid it no worry, telling Vanity Fair “that 25-year difference was the most fantastic thing for me to have in my life.”

Indeed, the couple was together until Bogart’s death in 1957.

Correction, Sept. 14, 2022: The original version of this story misstated the age gap between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It was two and a half decades, not four and a half.

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com