I can imagine that the children never boughtht into daddy’s much younger wife...she’s probably the sam3 age.
Whoa, I didn’t realize Wife #2 was 32 years younger than Hackman. Yes, that could tick off the three kids by Wife #1.
Gene and Faye Maltese married in 1956 and had three kids—Christopher, Elizabeth, and Leslie. They divorced in 1986 after 30 years.
You could see where the kids were really resentful and angry at Dad for doing that to their mother.
Gene Hackman met Betsy Arakawa in the mid-1980s (often cited as 1984 or 1985) at a gym in California where she worked part-time as a fitness instructor and classical pianist. They married in 1991. There is no public info about whether they dated before he divorced Wife #1.
So it sounds like Betsy Arakawa might lured him and that might have broken up his first marriage (there were public rumors about that). By the mid 80s, his best work was behind him, so he might have been hoping to rejuvenate things with a younger bride.