Sondra Locke

Eastwood first met actress Sondra Locke in 1972 when she was auditioning for his film Breezy. At the time, Eastwood was still married to Johnson, and Locke was married to her childhood best friend Gordon Anderson. She was later cast in Eastwood's film The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1975 — and the pair began an affair. Eastwood and Locke's relationship continued after filming wrapped, and Locke said she even moved into one of his homes. By the time they filmed The Gauntlet, rumors of a romance were swirling. Despite the headlines, the pair publicly maintained that they were just friends. The following year, Eastwood and Johnson separated. Locke alleged in her autobiography that, by then, she had had two abortions and a tubal ligation, as Eastwood told her he didn't want any more children. Locke and Eastwood's relationship continued for the next decade, growing more and more toxic. Throughout it, Locke remained legally married to and in a platonic relationship with Anderson, who was gay. Over the course of their turbulent relationship, Eastwood had affairs with both Jacelyn Reeves and Frances Fisher. By the end, the former couple were barely seeing each other, and in April 1989, Eastman allegedly moved all of Locke's belongings into storage and changed the locks on the doors of their home. Shortly after, Locke filed a palimony lawsuit against Eastwood, alleging that she suffered "humiliation, mental anguish … severe emotional and physical distress and … mental and physical harm" during their relationship. She asked for a $1.3 million share of the wealth amassed during their relationship as well as several of their properties, including one that had been leased to Anderson. The lawsuit sat in limbo for over a year; in the meantime, Locke was being treated for breast cancer. In 1990, it was finally agreed upon that, in exchange for Locke dropping the suit, Eastwood would secure her a $1.5 million development deal at Warner Bros., award her the house where Anderson lived and pay her $450,000 plus monthly support payments. Five years later, however, Locke sued Eastwood for fraud and breach of financial duty because all of the projects she brought to the studio were rejected, alleging that this was his way of keeping her from working. The pair settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in September 1996. In November 2018, Locke died of cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancer. She and Anderson remained married and close friends until her death.