The world's best-selling author Jackie Collins has made the shocking revelation that screen legend Marlon Brando had sex with her when she was only 15. She says Brando seduced her at a Hollywood party - days after she was expelled from a school in England.
Jackie Collins, now 72, said on Thursday: 'Marlon was in his early 30s and I was about to be 16. He sent someone over to me at a party to say, "Marlon thinks you're great looking and have a great body and would like to meet you". We had a very brief but fabulous affair - he was at the height of his fame and glamour.'
Had Jackie, then a budding actress, made her allegations public at the time, Brando, one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, would have faced up to four years in prison. Under Californian law the age of sexual consent is 18. Sex with a girl under 18 where there is more than a three-year age difference between them is an offence.
The affair took place, according to Miss Collins, in the summer of 1953, shortly before she turned 16. Brando would in fact have been 29.
Jackie has spoken previously of Brando coming on to her at a party, but has never been so explicit about the fact that they actually had a sexual relationship.
In 1995, she told the Daily Mail: 'I didn't know any better and he was very thin then. He was my favourite movie star - I'd seen The Wild One 26 times - and then I met him at a party. He stared straight at my 39in chest - men often talk to my chest - and said, "That's a great looking body you have, little girl". It was a mutual attraction. He had girlfriends but I didn't care. It was such a thrill for me because it was the most amazing introduction to Hollywood. I had only been there a week and there was my favourite movie star coming on to me. I saw him on and off for a while and then it was over. He was a great character.'
Her affair with Brando was the cause of a rift between her and her elder sister, actress Joan Collins, who also had a relationship with Brando.
Since Brando's death in 2004 a number of women have come forward to reveal his dark side.
In 2005 his third wife, Tarita Teriipia, claimed in a book that he had behaved inappropriately toward their daughter Cheyenne. According to Tarita, Cheyenne wrote in her diary that her father used to massage her 'as if he wanted me to pretend we were making love'. Tarita speculated that the abuse could have contributed to her daughter's decision to commit suicide later in her life.
And in 2007 Maria Schneider, Brando's co-star in the explicit film Last Tango In Paris, told the Mail that he had insisted on adding the controversial scene in which he pins her face down on a floor and performs a sex act on her.
