Sophia Loren at 80 recalls her unconsummated affair with Cary Grant

 

Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren at 80 recalls her unconsummated affair with Cary Grant

Still charming, engaging and beautiful at 80, screen icon Sophia Loren reminisces about her early years, path to stardom, great romances - and her love of eggplant parmesan.

By Chrissy Iley
November 13, 2014 — 12.25pm

Sophia Loren has always seemed to epitomise glamour, pure sex and the Hollywood state of mind, even though many of her movies were, in fact, Italian. There is probably no greater on-screen chemistry than Sophia Loren and Cary Grant in Houseboat (1958). They met when they made The Pride and the Passion in 1957. They really were in love.

I loved the chapters about Grant in her new autobiography, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life as a Fairy Tale. I have gone to Geneva, where she has lived for the past 36 years, to meet her and discuss the book.

She is wearing a black-and-white trouser suit. She is slim and voluptuous. A great body, even at 80. Her breasts still buoyant. Her eyes brown like chocolate melted over honeycomb. Giant eyelashes, giant lips.I note evidence of some facial landscaping and her hair is, in fact, a rather stiff wig. Nonetheless, she is still full of Italian-mama warmth and spiky charm. She comes over as an interesting mix of shyness, reserve, confident to the point of fearless, open and wary in equal parts.

Sophia Loren and Cary Grant

Cary Grant never proposed to me on set, says Sophia Loren

Actor puts myth to bed in Radio Times interview in which she also reveals her one regret

Aamna Mohdin
Tue 3 Nov 2020 06.00 GMT

It was one of the greatest cinematic love stories of the 20th century, but Sophia Loren has now revealed that Cary Grant never proposed to her on set.

The 86-year-old Italian actor has previously detailed the torrid love affair she had with Grant while filming the 1957 film The Pride and the Passion. Also starring Frank Sinatra, it was the first American film she had worked on.

 

Sophia Loren and Cary Grant

Sophia Loren: how Cary Grant begged me to become his lover

This article is more than 6 years old

Actress’s letters reveal the Hollywood star’s passionate pursuit of her while filming in Spain

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sun 19 Oct 2014 00.05 BST

When the young Sophia Loren dances a sultry flamenco in the role of Juana in the 1957 film The Pride and the Passion, the onlooking crowd of peasants appear spellbound, not least among them Cary Grant, who plays the English hero. Now the public are to learn what the film star was really thinking as he watched Loren stamp her feet and swirl her skirt.

Cary Grant and Sophia Loren

The Italian screen goddess, who turned 80 last month, was drawn into a torrid love affair with Grant during the making of the film in Spain and her memoirs, to be published in a few weeks, will reveal the intimate details of the matinee idol’s determined pursuit of her on set, despite the fact he was 30 years older than her and married to his third wife.

Sophia Loren, 1961

In her first volume of autobiography, prompted by the discovery of a cache of letters and souvenirs in her Swiss home, Loren recalls that Grant urged they pray together for guidance about whether to leave their partners.