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Sean Connery called 'wife beater' as Playboy interview with nothing 'wrong about hitting woman' remark resurfaces

The actor infamously told Playboy in 1965, 'I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman, although I don’t recommend doing it in the same way that you’d hit a man'

Although hundreds and thousands of tributes poured in for the legendary actor, Sean Connery, after he died at 90 last week, some people also dug up his controversial comments about being abusive toward women in old interviews. The 'James Bond' actor infamously told Playboy in 1965, “I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman, although I don’t recommend doing it in the same way that you’d hit a man.” He added that an “opened handed slap” was “justified” if “all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning”. He had also said: “If a woman is a b**ch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I’d do it."

After Connery received backlash for his comments, he doubled down on his opinion in a 1987 interview with Barbara Walters. “I haven’t changed my opinion … If you have tried everything else — and women are pretty good at this — they can’t leave it alone,” he told Walters at the time. “They want to have the last word and you give them the last word, but they’re not happy with the last word. They want to say it again and get into a really provocative situation, then I think it’s absolutely right.”

However, over the years, the actor has changed his stance on beating women. “I was really saying that to slap a woman was not the crudest thing you can do to her,” he told Vanity Fair in 1993, suggesting that his words were earlier taken out of context. “I said that in my book — it’s much more cruel to psychologically damage somebody … to put them in such distress that they really come to hate themselves. Sometimes there are women who take it to the wire. That’s what they’re looking for, the ultimate confrontation — they want a smack.” By 2006, Connery had completely flipped his opinion on the matter. “My view is I don’t believe that any level of abuse against women is ever justified under any circumstances. Full stop,” he told the Times of London that year. However, in the same year, Diane Cilento, his ex-wife wrote in her autobiography, 'My Nine Lives', claiming that the star was abusive during their marriage, which lasted from 1962 to 1973. Connery denied the allegations.

Connery's controversial comments were dug up by actor Bradley Whitford, who wrote, "Sean Connery seemed cool. Unapologetically beating women is not cool." A number of people have since reacted to it. "Yeah, this is totally ok to say in 1987. It was the 80s, after all, how could he *possibly* know better than this? He was only 57 years old," one wrote sarcastically, while another said, "It’s so f**ked up how wife beaters are completely forgiven when they die." A third commented, "It's so sad to see his battery of women is overlooked by so many. He publicly said it was ok, out loud, MORE than once!"

Then there were those who thought that Connery had earned forgiveness as he chose to change his opinion about hitting women over the years. "He did repudiate his earlier position. People grow and change. While it’s fair to note people’s faults, it’s not fair to ignore their change for the better," one commented. Another remarked, "He changed his views later in life. Unlike other men." Someone else wrote, "I did read an interview lately where he denied he said that, said he thought the interviewer misunderstood him and denounced any form of physical violence towards women. Who knows?"