Who were Larry Flynt's 5 wives? Late porn mogul claimed fourth wife Althea who died in 1987 was love of his life
Larry Flynt, one of America's well-known pornographers, and founder of Hustler magazine died on February 10, 2021, in Los Angeles at his home, aged 78. Larry's brother, Jimmy Flynt confirmed the death with TMZ reporting the cause of death as heart failure. Controversies came quite easy to the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP) who was involved in a few legal battles that involved the first Ammendmentment.
He has also been sued, prosecuted, jailed for contempt, gagged for obscene outbursts in court, and was even shot and paralyzed by a would-be assassin in 1978 as per the Washinton Post.
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Larry Flynt: Who was the porn mogul?
He was a big name in the porn industry for almost 50 years, started Hustler magazine in 1974 and even expanded to three TV channels known as Hustler TV. Not just his professional life, Flynt's personal life was also noteworthy. Born on November 1, 1942, in Lakeville, Ky, late Flynt had grown up poor and later joined the US Army at the age of 15 using reportedly a counterfeit birth certificate.
It was after he was honorably discharged, that he worked at an Inland Manufacturing Company, and as a bootlegger before enlisting in the Navy in 1960 according to Variety. He was then again honorably discharged in 1964 before he entered the business of bars which later led to him opening the Hustler Clubs in Ohio.
Who were Larry Flynt's 5 wives?
Many controversies followed his life after, including the death of one of his wives who was found in a bathtub. Flynt had five wives before he had died — read on to find out who they were.
Mary Flynt
Flynt married Mary Flynt in 1961 and the couple divorced in 1965.
Peggy Flynt
He then went on to marry Peggy Flynt in 1996, and the couple divorced in 1969.
Kathy Flynt
In 1970, he married Kathy Flynt and the couple was divorced in 1975 before Flynt married his fourth wife Althea Flynt in 1976.
Althea had died in 1987. His last and fifth wife was Elizabeth Berrios whom he married in 1998. Flynt had a child with Kathy Flynt named Theresa Flynt. While there is little information on Mary, Peggy, and Kathy Flynt, there is a bit of information on Flynt's life with his two recent wives.
Althea Flynt
Althea Flynt was born on November 6, 1953, in Marietta Ohio. Her parents are named Richard and June Leasure, and she had four siblings named Debbie, Sherry, Marsha, and Richard Leasure. As the fourth wife of Flynt, she was also the co-publisher of his pornography magazine, Hustler. According to reports, she had come from an abusive home with her father killing her mother, grandfather, her mother's best friend, and himself in a murder-suicide when she was just eight years of age.
Her grandmother had survived that ordeal. Althea was then put in a home called Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphanage in Xenia, Ohio. There she had suffered sexual abuse at the homes of "potential adopters" and so, she ran away from her homes multiple times.
She had met Flynt when she was 17 years of age in the year 1971 when she had applied for a job as a go-go dancer in a Hustler club in Columbus, Ohio. The couple got married on August 21, 1976, and Althea even became the magazine's first life-size centerfold.
She joined Flynt's Hustler antics and reportedly helped with "development, editing, publication, and management. " In fact, she was the one that took care of Flynt's business when he had was going through psychological illnesses between the years of 1977-1984.
In the 1980s, Althea had also wanted to start a magazine called The Rage that would focus on "punk subculture", but it never happened. She later ended up becoming addicted to Larry's pain pills (given to him after he was shot in 1978) in 1982. Reportedly it involved, "morphine, cocaine, marijuana, methadone, and so on." In the year 1983, she was diagnosed with AIDS, which she reportedly contracted during a blood transfusion during a hysterectomy.
She lived with AIDS for about four years before she passed away on June 27, 1987. Her death stirred quite a controversy as she had drowned in her bathtub at the age of 33 in her and Flynt's home in Los Angeles. Reports indicated that she had lost consciousness after she overdosed on prescription drugs. Flynt had said at the time that Althea had "advanced stages" of AIDS and that she was bedridden.
According to a 1987 The Washington Post article, Flynt had bought Althea "interesting gifts" such as a "furnished home in the Rocky Mountains, or the call girl of her choice at a New York brothel." In the article, it was obvious that Flynt was devasted after his fourth wife's death even saying, "I don't think – the full impact – has had a chance to settle in." He had also revealed that when Althea had died she had an "AIDS-related complex, ARC."
The couple had allegedly even considered using cryonics. While some of Althea's friends thought of her death as a possible suicide, Larry said that he believed she was "thin and sick and fell asleep in the bathwater." He didn't believe that it was a suicide. He reportedly said, "she would have left me a note." Althea was laid to rest at Salyersville, Kentucky, at the Flynt family cemetery plot. The couple did not have children together. Years after Althea's death, Flynt moved on with his fifth wife.
Elizabeth Berrios
Flynt's fifth wife treasures her privacy but there is little that is known about her. She was a former nurse, who has a younger brother named Sean Berrios who has worked as a crew member for adult videos. The couple were married in June 1988 and were still married when Flynt died. After Flynt was shot in 1978 and ended up being paralyzed, a 2013 Daily Mail article saw him speak about how he uses a penile implant to have sex with his wife at the time.
The porn mogul told The Hollywood Reporter, "Lots of men have them. There’s a little reservoir in the bottom part of your stomach, and you trigger it with a button inside your testicles that doesn’t show. Nothing shows." In that article, he also revealed that he has slept with other women during his marriage to Berrios, something he said he's done in his other four marriages. "I wouldn’t be in a relationship that wasn’t open," he said while also adding that his "current" wife, Berrios didn't share his views on that.
In the same article, he also claimed that his fourth wife Althea was the love of his life. There is not much else known about Berrios.
Picture credit: Larry Flynt Photos