Clint Eastwood turns 90: 'Fun and easy' girlfriend Christina Sandera, 56, has a violent past
Clint Eastwood, who turned 90 on May 31, has been dating his girlfriend Christina Sandera since 2014 - after the two met while she was working as a restaurant hostess at Eastwood's Mission Ranch Hotel. After having married twice in life - the last marriage to Dina Eastwood ending a year before he met his current girlfriend, the nonagenarian might have found the one he is meant to be with at last, despite the 33-year age difference between the two.
“He’s truly happy with her,” an insider told Closer Weekly in May, ahead of his birthday. “She’s fun, easygoing and his kids like her, too. She’s on an even keel like he is.”
According to Us Weekly, ever since the pair started dating, Sandera has been staying in the $20 million mansion Eastwood built for his ex-wife Dina. After Eastwood divorced with his wife of 17 years, he dated photographer Erica Tomlinson-Fisher before he settled down with Sandera. Eastwood went public with his relationship with Sandera in 2015 when he brought her as his date to the Oscars. He walked the red carpet for the second time with her in November of that same year - for the Eastwood Ranch Foundation’s first annual “Fall Garden Party.”
However, Sandera's most notable photo op came in December 2018 when she joined her boyfriend's kids and his first wife, Margaret "Maggie” Johnson, on the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of 'The Mule - a movie Eastwood considered special because he believed it might be his final acting role. “Clint knows this might be his last film, and he wanted all of his kids to be there,” an insider revealed to Closer Weekly at the time.
Soon after Sandera walked the red carpet with Eastwood for the first time, her ex-husband, Paul Wainscoat, who was married to her for 11 months before filing for divorce, opened up about their violent marital history. He told Daily Mail that she had a drinking problem and which often led to frequent fights between them, and which would sometimes turn physically violent.
Apparently, in July 2002, prior to her marriage with Wainscoat, she was arrested for domestic battery after an argument between them turned hostile. At that time, she became enraged when he refused to move in with her. When he tried to leave, she "grabbed onto his shirt and scratched his neck to prevent him." Although he called the cops on her, and which led to her arrest, the couple got married eight months later.
Following their marriage, Wainscoat claimed they had another violent fight as she was "distraught due to the recent death of one of her cats." She began screaming "Where are my kittens?" before repeatedly punching him with a closed fist before throwing "a full bottle of Gatorade, which hit him in the back of the head." At the time, Wainscoat chose not to press charges. Her "bizarre behavior" continued, however, including a time when Sandera threatened to "axe" their furniture if he left her.
The marriage came to an end ultimately in June 2003, when police responded to another domestic disturbance after Wainscoat reported "being battered by his wife." Sandera was ordered by the court to quit drinking even though she claimed that she was not an alcoholic and to attend AA meetings. She was also ordered to attend "15 anger management classes. "It was hell," said Wainscoat of the relationship. "I wish Clint all the luck in the world with that woman."