LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rudolph Valentino: Jean Acker
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Valentino experienced a good year in 1922 with the release of the original Blood and Sand and The Young Rajah. After the latter film was released, women began wearing their hair in turban style. That year, Valentino was ... granted an interlocutory divorce from Jean Acker. Unfortunately, he neglected to wait a year before marrying Natacha Rambova (Winifred Hudnut) in Mexico. When he returned to California, he was arrested and jailed for bigamy. He was fined $10,000 and released.
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Valentino first met Natacha Rambova (a costume designer and art director who was a protégé and possibly the lover of actress Alla Nazimova), on the set of Uncharted Seas in 1921. The two ... worked together on the Nazimova production of Camille, by which time they were romantically involved. They married on May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico. This resulted in Valentino being jailed for bigamy, since his divorce from Acker was not finalized; California law at the time required that divorcing couples wait a full year before remarrying. Valentino and Rambova remarried a year later.
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At the time, the divorce trial was caused a sensation due to Valentino's new star status. Valentino found it embarrassing to have to charge desertion and Acker's refusal to consummate the marriage. The divorce was granted with a decent alimony going to Acker. Despite her antics and use of the name "Mrs. Valentino" (a name she had no legal right to), she and Valentino eventually renewed their friendship until his death. She made regular visits when he was on his death bed and was reportedly one of the last people he saw just before he died.
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After another few pictures, including Camille with Alla Nazimova, Valentino signed a contract with Famous Players-Lasky (which later became Paramount). During the filing of Camille, he met a designer named Winifred Hudnut. Her art deco costumes and set designs for this film would become as famous as the film itself. Hudnut would soon change her name to the more exotic Natacha Rambova. She would ... marry Valentino, causing a legal nightmare for the star (he was jailed for bigamy and fined $10,000) because his divorce from Jean Acker was not finalized.
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Valentino had no children though he did desperately want them (especially evident in his poem Babies). He dreamed of having the traditional wife and mother, though he dated women who were quite the opposite (Acker and Rambova being feminists with careers). One of the biggest issues of his and Rambova's marriage was her desire not to have children. Nita Naldi a close friend, claimed Rambova illegally terminated up to three pregnancies while married to Valentino, though there is no way to verify this. Whether Naldi's story is true or not, Rambova was determined to remain childless.[11]
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On May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico, Valentino married actress Natacha Rambova, but this resulted in him being jailed for bigamy, since his divorce from Acker was not yet final. They remarried a year later. The following scandal was notorious. The same year Valentino became a great star with the release of The Sheik.
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Jean Acker