Younger generations may not recognise Janet Leigh’s name, but they would definitely recognize her face – and scream.

In the shower scene from the film Psycho, Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) screams in terror. (Bettmann Archive)

In a jaw-dropping revelation, actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis has shattered long-held perceptions about her mother, Hollywood legend Janet Leigh, and her marriage to silver screen icon Tony Curtis. For decades, their union was considered one of the most glamorous and seemingly perfect marriages in Hollywood, but now, Jamie Lee Curtis has uncovered a heartbreaking truth about their once fairytale relationship. In an emotional interview, the actress lays bare the real reason their marriage fell apart, and it’s a story that no one saw coming.

Janet Leigh, the stunning actress known for her unforgettable role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Tony Curtis, a heartthrob whose talents lit up the screen in films like Some Like It Hot, were the golden couple of the 1950s. Their love story seemed like the stuff of dreams, with Leigh’s angelic beauty and Curtis’ charming good looks capturing the hearts of millions. They seemed destined to be together forever. However, as Jamie Lee Curtis now reveals, there was much more going on behind the scenes than the public ever knew.

Their love story came to a rather sad end just a decade after the pair said “I do”.

The bigger star

When Leigh met Curtis at a publicity party in 1950, there was no denying her name carried far more weight in Hollywood.

Just 23 years old at the time, Leigh had already starred in several big-budget productions after fellow actress Norma Shearer discovered her in 1946.

Shearer had spotted a photo of Leigh while vacationing at a ski resort where Leigh’s parents worked, then showed the snap to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) talent agent who was rapt with the young beauty.

Shearer said in 1947 she knew just from the picture that Leigh could be a star, saying: “That smile made it the most fascinating face I had seen in years… I had to show that face to somebody at the studio.”
American actress Janet Leigh (1927 – 2004), circa 1955. (Getty)
Soon after, Leigh signed an MGM contract and made her screen debut in Civil War film The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947), followed by a string of other films, including Little Women (1949).

Curtis, on the other hand, had fewer roles to his name, many of them small parts or supporting roles in less commercially successful films. That said, he had certainly amassed a small public fanbase.

But when they met at that party in 1950, he was blown away by Leigh’s “sweetness”, not her star power.

“Her face was exquisite… and there was a sweetness about her that I found most appealing,” Curtis remembered in his autobiography.
Film stars Tony Curtis (Bernard Schwarz) and his wife Janet Leigh (Jeanette Morrison) enjoying a dance. (Getty)
“It just devastated me to look at this woman… I noticed how everybody responded to her, and I said, ‘I want her. I want her to be mine.’”

As for Leigh, she was just as taken by the dark-haired actor, who she remembered in her own memoir as having an “irresistible personality”.

They exchanged numbers, but their romance didn’t get off to an easy start.

A whirlwind affair

Hollywood tycoon Howard Hughes was already pursuing Leigh when she met Curtis, and though she had no interest in him, Hughes had plenty of weight to throw around in Hollywood circles.

Meanwhile, Curtis had reportedly been offered tens of thousands of dollars by Universal to marry his regular co-star Piper Laurie.

The studio thought the match would help boost box office appeal, but Curtis refused – though he was tempted by the cash.
Piper Laurie and Tony Curtis in a scene from the movie “No Room for the Groom”. (Getty)
Instead, he pursued Leigh, calling her up and imitating Cary Grant – a skill he was reportedly very good at – to ask her on a date. He hoped to test Leigh and see if her affections were true.

But Leigh figured out it was Curtis on the line and politely turned down ‘Grant”s offer, saying she already had plans with Curtis.

Their romance bloomed from there, the couple growing incredibly close in a matter of months as Curtis visited Leigh regularly on the sets of her Hollywood films.

According to him, their relationship was “very hot, very physical in those early years”, and he and Leigh couldn’t stand to be apart for long.

“That was a major part of it – the actual touching and holding. We both needed each other physically, and we were a perfect match.”
American actors Tony Curtis (1925 – 2010) and Janet Leigh (1927 – 2004), circa 1955. (Getty)
But in the background, Universal was leaning heavily on Curtis to marry Piper Laurie. To them, Leigh was just a star from a rival studio and an unsuitable match for Curtis.

Meanwhile, close friends of Leigh’s warned her getting married to Curtis could mean the end of her career.

But both stars ignored the warnings, and in 1951 Curtis called Leigh up and asked her to marry him. She said yes.

A difficult marriage

Curtis and Leigh eloped, marrying in a small ceremony in Connecticut on June 4, 1951, with comedian Jerry Lewis as their witness.

The news hit the tabloids and gossip columns almost instantly, fans thrilled by the couple’s romance, and the pair began their life as one of Hollywood’s golden couples.
American actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh (1927 – 2004) sip champagne during their wedding. (Getty)
They did press interviews and photoshoots together, their film careers soaring due to their combined star power, and for a while it seemed Curtis and Leigh were the perfect married pair.

“No other husband-and-wife team came close to us until Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but that was 10 years later,” Curtis remembered.

“They did it through scandal. We did it through the movies and people’s affection.”

But the couple’s happiness wasn’t to last.

Curtis was reportedly deeply insecure and quickly grew jealous of Leigh’s relationship with other men, even if they were totally platonic.

He also felt she bossed him around, due to her more educated background and greater star power.
Married American actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, circa 1955. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images) (Silver Screen)
“I could see signs in myself that I was becoming subservient,” Curtis recalled.

“Janet and I would go to a party together, and if I lit my cigarette without offering to light the cigarette of the person I was talking to, Janet would poke me with her elbow.”

It didn’t help that he was a regular at the playboy mansion and claimed he still had beautiful girls “throwing themselves” at him.

In 1956, five years into their marriage, they welcomed their first daughter Kelly and decided to try to make their marriage work for her sake.

Curtis said: “We settled into a functional but unromantic marriage, the kind of life that was less unusual in Hollywood than you might think.”
Actors Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis on the set of the film “Some Like it Hot”. (Getty)
They starred in several films together, but behind the scenes Curtis was reportedly dabbling with drugs and engaged in two affairs with actresses Gloria DeHaven and Natalie Wood.

He also claimed to have had an affair in 1958 with Marilyn Monroe while filming Some Like It Hot together. He claimed she fell pregnant with his child, but later miscarried.

Leigh, who starred in her most iconic role in Psycho in 1960, was struggling with the pressures of fame. According to Curtis, she began to drink and abuse sleeping pills.

They had welcomed a second child in 1958, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who described herself in 2010 as her parents’ final bid to salvage their relationship.
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother actress Janet Leigh pose for a portrait session in 1979. (Getty)
“By the time I came along… my parents’ bond had deteriorated precipitously as their stardom grew.  And like any other save-the-marriage baby, I failed,” she told More.

“My parents hated each other my whole life… I was raised in a house of hatred,” she said in a later appearance on The View.

Divorce, and a 17-year-old ‘replacement’

Leigh was filming The Manchurian Candidate in 1962 when she received the news Curtis had filed from divorce, though his reason was even more shocking than the divorce itself.

Curtis had fallen in love with 17-year-old German actress Christine Kaufmann, whom he met while filming Taras Bulba.
Tony Curtis with his wife Christine Kaufmann and their daughter Alexandra in Southampton. (Getty)
Jamie Lee Curtis said of the split: “Janet suffered public embarrassment as Tony chose a 17-year-old replacement, a German actress with whom he was working, and she felt the slings and arrows of tabloid gossip and innuendo.”

It was a messy divorce, and Leigh took it hard, reportedly struggling with substance abuse but desperate to get the paperwork settled as soon as possible.

She and Curtis officially divorced on September 14, 1962. The very next day, she married stockbroker Robert Brandt in Las Vegas. They remained married until her death in 2004.

Curtis also remarried in 1963, wedding Kaufmann, who had turned 18 by then. They had two children before divorcing in 1968.
American actress Janet Leigh (1927 – 2004) with her husband Robert Brandt in 1963. (Getty)

A messy legacy

In the decades that followed, Curtis would marry four more women, divorcing all but his last wife, Jill Vandenberg, who was 45 years his junior when they wed in 1998.

But his career never really recovered after divorcing Leigh, and he had a strained relationship with both of his actress daughters.

Jamie Lee Curtis refused to have a relationship with her father until the 1980s, and Kelly and several of their half-siblings sued when he left them nothing upon his death in 2010.

But it seemed her mother, Leigh, eventually forgave Curtis for their messy and often painful marriage.
Actress Janet Leigh (R) holding infant daughter Jamie Lee as she sits with actor husband Tony Curtis, who is holding daughter Kelly. (The LIFE Picture Collection via)
“Tony and I had a wonderful time together; it was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood,” she once said of Curtis. “A lot of great things happened, most of all, two beautiful children.”

He had a different perspective on their failed marriage though, saying: “For a while, we were Hollywood’s golden couple. I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet.

“But in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realised that whatever I was, I wasn’t enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart.”