What Really Led To Frida Kahlo's Affair With Leon Trotsky

This isn’t to create the impression that Kahlo was an unfaithful partner. She was extremely dedicated to Rivera, bringing him “lunch every day, bathing him, [and] cooking for him,” according to Smithsonian Magazine. Rivera was equally smitten, saying upon first meeting that, “I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life. And would continue to be, up to the moment she died, 27 years later,” (via Spanish Mama).

The two separated and reunited several times throughout their relationship, and there was more than one affair that took place among both parties. Kahlo, who was bisexual, also had affairs with Dolores del Rio, Paulette Goddard and Maria Felix, according to Respectability.org. Reportedly, Rivera encouraged these relations because he was also infamous for having affairs, including one with Kahlo’s younger sister, Cristina (via Smithsonian Magazine).

Although the affair with her sister perhaps took it too far, Kahlo also seemed to share an openness to multiple lovers — once saying “Fall in love with yourself, with life, and after whoever you want” (via La Razón).

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