In the 50-plus years Warren Beatty has excelled in the film industry, there’s been one long-standing rumor that has continued to follow him — and he finally set the record straight in a new interview.
In 2010, unauthorized biographer Peter Biskind estimated that the Dick Tracy star, now 79, bedded nearly 13,000 women throughout his career. As fans know, the veteran actor famously dated Madonna, Natalie Wood, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon and Janice Dickinson, among others.
Now, in his first interview in nearly two decades, Beatty says the number is incorrect. “Think about it, sleeping with 12,775 people,” he told AARP magazine in his new October/November 2016 cover story. “That would mean not just that there were multiple people a day, but that there was no repetition.”
The Bulworth actor didn’t downplay his infamous ladies’ man reputation, though. “Look, I never mislead anyone,” he told the publication. “And … and I’m a nice guy.”
Beatty didn’t get married until he was in his mid-fifties, tying the knot with Annette Bening in 1992. The couple share four children together — Stephen, 24, Benjamin, 22, Isabel, 19, and Ella, 16.
“I waited a long time to be married,” he explained to AARP. “When you don’t get married until you’re 54 … well, as Arthur Miller said, ‘It comes with the territory.'”
Beatty added, “I always knew I wanted to have children. I wanted to do it well, and I wanted to do it with someone who felt the same way. I’m an attentive father, I have to struggle somewhat not to be overly attentive. It’s a burden to be the child of not only one famous parent, but two.”
In November, the iconic filmmaker’s first movie in 18 years, Rules Don’t Apply, will hit theaters. Beatty wrote and directed the film in addition to starring alongside his wife and costars Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin.
