Judy Blume Admits to Cheating on First Husband in New Biography: ‘I Wanted to Be Free’

Judy Blume opened up about her affairs during her first marriage in a new biography.

After marrying at just 21 years old in 1959, weeks after the death of her father, the beloved author, now 88, welcomed two children. However, as times began to change, Blume was longing for freedom.

“It was building, you know? I wanted to be out there. I wanted to be free. I wanted to sleep with whoever I wanted to sleep with. I wanted all those sixties things that I missed,” the Wifey author told biographer Mark Oppenheimer for his book, Judy Blume: A Life.

Already a successful children’s author by the early 1970s, Blume admitted to stepping outside of her marriage.

“At a conference, a married editor of children’s books came on to her, and she went to bed with him (although they did not have intercourse),” Oppenheimer wrote, per People. “And on a vacation she took without John or the children, she had sex with ‘a very young guy at the beach.'”

An STD scare led her to tell her then-husband about the affairs.

“He said, ‘I understand. You know, [when] we got married . . . you were so young. You had never been with anybody. And don’t think there haven’t been plenty of chances for me… but I haven’t done it, and I don’t expect you to ever again,’” she recalled.

Following her 1975 divorce from John Blume, she would go on to marry Thomas Kitchens the following year. They divorced in 1978. Judy has been married to her third husband, George Cooper, since 1987.

She still refers to her first husband — with whom she shares daughter Randy and son Lawrence — as “very decent,” explaining he was open to her having a career.

“[John] said, ‘As long as you can still keep up with your responsibilities. You’re responsible for the house and the children. And if you can do this on the side, fine,’” the biographer wrote.