Sophia Loren Clarifies Rumors About Her Affair with Cary Grant: Him Proposing Would Have Been “Impossible”

By Claire Spellberg @c_spellberg
Published Nov. 3, 2020, 3:08 p.m. ET

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The Pride and the Passion

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Legendary actress Sophia Loren is setting the record straight about her torrid affair with Cary Grant. For decades, rumors have swirled that Grant proposed to Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion in 1957, but in a new interview with Radio Times, Loren revealed that the leading man never actually popped the question. “Cary Grant was a very handsome man and a wonderful actor, but he didn’t propose,” recalled the 86-year-old actress, per the Guardian. “I mean, how can you propose while you’re doing a picture? It’s impossible.”

In the mid-1950s, Loren, then 23 years old, and Grant, 30 years her senior, began an affair while filming Napoleonic-era war epic The Pride and the Passion. At the time, Grant was married to his third wife, but that didn’t deter him from pursuing the young Italian actress. However, the passionate relationship didn’t last long: as Loren details in her 2014 memoir, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, they split shortly before filming ended, and she went on to marry Italian producer Carlo Ponti in September 1957.

Loren and Ponti remained together until his death in 2007, but despite their relative stability (save for an annulment to avoid bigamy charges), it’s her affair with Grant that has continued to dominate the rumor mill. For almost 60 years, prevailing wisdom has held that Grant proposed to Loren on the set of the 1957 film, but now, we know that to be false. Even if Grant had proposed, Loren told Radio Times, she wouldn’t have said yes, as Ponti was “the love of [her] life.”

The Oscar-winning actress went on to say that she looks back fondly on her marriage and the impact it had on her career. “It’s very hard to say you have no regrets. In life, you always go through so many experiences, but I have always tried to live with no regrets,” said Loren. “I think I’ve reached a peaceful life. I have everything I ever wanted, which is a wonderful family with beautiful children and beautiful grandchildren. The only thing I regret a little is that I never got married in a white dress. That was the dream of my life, which is still inside me.”

It’s not too late, Sophia Loren! You can still get married in a white dress, Labor Day be damned.

Where to stream The Pride and the Passion