Why did Calvin Klein have a beard for so long?

If I remember correctly, he divorced his first wife, and for several years he didn’t speak about his sexuality but it was an open secret that he was gay.

Then around 1983 rumors that he had AIDS became rampant, and he married his second wife Kelly around that time to shut them down.

He had a bizarre relationship to his sexuality. He has a daughter by his first wife, and then he married Kelly Rector in 1986 in the middle of the AIDS crisis when he was at his most famous. At the same time he was lusting after straight male models who would swim in his pool but who would mostly not fuck him--it was his way of punishing himself.

Kelly Rector, his second wife, was a classic bearding choice,. She was very pretty, and had previously been his assistant when they married. She did not seem to have much personality, which prompted SPY Magazine to compare her memorably to the girl in old James Bond movies who gets killed in the first reel to set the plot in motion.

"We are our choices"

It was a reaction to the AIDS epidemic and the very real fear that his business would take a nose dive if middle America found out he was gay. Keep in mind Perry Ellis had died of AIDS by then and rumors were also swirling about Klein because he was rather thin.

So he sold his houses in Fire Island and Key West, offered an amazing deal to a design assistant in his office named Kelly Rector, and she signed a contract to become Kelly Klein. It was also quite literally a marketing angle of the launch of the Eternity fragrance.

Nobody can deny that Klein was a marketing genius who always had his finger on the cultural pulse of the country. Easy sex and the more liberal attitudes of the 1970s were over and so Klein positioned himself and the image of “Calvin Klein” the company to better suit the conservative climate of the Reagan 1980’s.

He and Kelly always had separate apartments in Manhattan even after the “marriage”, but ostensibly shared a house he bought for her on Georgica Pond in East Hampton.

When the contract was up and they “divorced”., she got a sweet deal including the East Hampton house and a huge cash and stock settlement. They remain friendly even today.

But in regards to his first wife Jayne ,whom he married in 1964 way before he became a success, by most accounts it was a classic scenario of marrying to mask your true sexuality.

Klein himself has admitted in interviews that the marriage was essentially on the rocks within a year, but they stayed together about 9 years because of having had a kid. Although for much of that time he wasn’t actually living with Jayne.

In short, the first wife was to please his parents... the second wife was to please his investors and his own bank account.

Same as any pron actor. Denial is a river…

[quote]So he sold his houses in Fire Island and Key West, offered [bold]an amazing deal[/bold] to a design assistant in his office named Kelly Rector, and she signed a contract to become Kelly Klein.

"Just sign away your soul and your reputation in order to become my fake wife, and you'll have tons of money and your own Manhattan apartment!"

He had a mole on his chin

R6 is right - the 2nd marriage was for investors and his brand.

However, there may have been something else. He married Kelly in 86, they were officially separated in 1996 (when HIV medications came out - coincidence?), and officially divorced in 2006 - the same year his mother died.

So it could have been for his mom?

And I believe Kelly came from a rather wealthy background - although nothing like Calvin's money. She looked like a female JFK Jr.

I found Kelly and Calvin’s marriage to be extremely romantic!

Is it still alive??

R8 she had a son about 16 years ago with her new partner, a handsome polo player named Nick Manifold.

And she has about $250 million, tons of friends, the Hotel des Artistes apartment in New York, a house in East Hampton, and a house in Palm Beach. So no need to shed any tears for Ms. Rector’s “soul” or worry about her reputation.

they were officially separated in 1996 (when HIV medications came out - coincidence?)

I’d live to learn the logic behind this … or better yet WTF?

[quote] And she has about $250 million, tons of friends, the Hotel des Artistes apartment in New York, a house in East Hampton, and a house in Palm Beach. So no need to shed any tears for Ms. Rector’s “soul” or worry about her reputation.

Traslated: "Anything is justifiable if money and glamour are your payoffs!"

I recall when Calvin Klein first met Christy Turlington in the 1980s as he was signing her to an exclusive contract to be the face of Eternity, he told her she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and that he would marry her if he wasn't already married...

Reg strikes back.