Clint Eastwood compared quitting 'addictive' affairs to giving up smoking after years of serial cheating ... according to new memoir

Daily Mail​

11 hours ago

Clint Eastwood has never been shy about admitting his penchant for adultery, a book released today claims.
The 95-year-old movie actor/director's extramarital trysts were reexamined in Clint: The Man and The Movies from author Shawn Levy, 63 (not to be confused with the 56-year-old Deadpool & Wolverine director/Ryan Reynolds pal).
Eastwood spoke with Levy for the book about his romantic relationships throughout the years, and how he assumed his partners understood that affairs came with the territory of being in a romance with a perennial Hollywood A-lister.
Among his most prominent romances Eastwood was involved in, include his respective marriages to Maggie Johnson, 93, from 1973-1979; and Dina Ruiz, 59, from 1996-2013.
The filmmaker of classics such as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Unforgiven was also in extended relationships with actresses including the late Sondra Locke; and Titanic star Frances Fisher, who he's still on good terms with.
Dailymail.com has reached out to Eastwood's lawyers for further comment on the story.
Levy said of Eastwood in the book: 'By many accounts, including his own, he more or less comported himself as if he were a bachelor.'
Johnson was in the know about Eastwood's serial cheating., the book stated.
Eastwood chat with the publication Photoplay about the dynamics of his marriage to Photoplay.
Eastwood explained: 'One thing Mag had to learn about me was that I was going to do as I pleased. She had to accept that, because if she didn't, we wouldn't be married.
'I'm independent, a vagabond, and [Johnson] accepts me as I am and doesn't strangle me with female possessiveness.'
The actor compared quitting cheating to quitting smoking in Clint Eastwood: A Biography, a 1997 book from biographer Richard Schickel
It 'just became… I don't know… addictive… like you have to have another cigarette,' he said.
Eastwood had been in a romance with Christina Sandera from 2014 until her tragic passing at 61 last July.
A logline from publisher Mariner Books calls the book 'a revelatory portrait' of Eastwood, who is described as 'the most prolific and versatile actor-director in movie history and an imposing icon of American culture for six decades.'
The synopsis continued: 'Whether he's facing down bad guys on a Western street (Old West or new, no matter), staring through the lens of a camera, or accepting one of his movies' thirteen Oscars (including two for Best Picture), he is as blunt, curt, and solid as his name, a star of the old-school stripe and one of the most accomplished directors of his time, a man of rock and iron and brute force: Clint.'
The logline noted that Eastwood's long life has directly correlated to 'American culture,' as 'no Hollywood figure has so completely and complexly stood inside the changing climates of post–World War II America.
'At age ninety-five, he has lived a tumultuous century and embodied much of his time and many of its contradictions.'
The synopsis concluded: 'Clint: The Man and the Movies is a saga of cunning, determination, and conquest, a story about a man ascending to the Hollywood pantheon while keeping one foot firmly planted outside its door.'
In June, the publisher posted a sneak peek at the book cover while commemorating the actor's latest birthday celebration.
'Wishing Clint Eastwood's a happy 95th birthday this week!' the publisher said. 'We are so thrilled to be bringing the definitive biography of this legendary actor and director to stores everywhere on July 1.'
Eastwood's most recent film, the legal thriller Juror #2, arrived in theaters last November and made $24 million in global revenues, according to Box Office Mojo .
A logline for the film read, 'While serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, a family man finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma, one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict or free the wrong killer.'
The cast of the motion picture included Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette and J.K. Simmons.