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Lindbergh had 7 secret children in Germany -book
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN, May 30 (Reuters) - American aviator Charles Lindbergh had three German mistresses simultaneously and seven secret children whom he visited and supported for decades, according to a new book published on Monday.
Eighteen months after genetic tests proved earlier claims by three Germans that Lindbergh was their father, their book called "The Double Life of Charles A. Lindbergh" says he fathered two more children with their aunt and two with his German secretary.
Lindbergh, who also had six children with his U.S. wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, became world famous for his daring 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 33 hours. He remained a worldwide celebrity until he died in 1974.
The new book recounts how Lindbergh started a romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer in 1957 when he was 55 and she was 32. As DNA tests confirmed, they had three children.
The book treads new ground with claims Lindbergh also romanced Brigitte's sister Marietta as well as a third woman, an acquaintance of the sisters named Valeska who was also Lindbergh's German translator and private secretary.
"Valeska was an extremely attractive blonde woman," writes the book's author Rudolf Schroeck.
Written in cooperation with the now middle-aged children, the book says all three women knew about Lindbergh's romances with the other women but more or less tolerated it.
"It was a secret 'menage a quatre', a four-way relationship that only Lindbergh knew the exact details about," Schroeck writes. "He was a man with three mistresses -- and a wife."
NEW DETAILS ABOUT LINDBERGH
According to Schroeck, Hesshaimer's sister Marietta had two sons with Lindbergh -- identified in the book only as Vago and Christoph. Valeska had a son and daughter with Lindbergh. Their names are not mentioned. Marietta and Valeska are still alive.
The book, which includes excerpts from 150 love letters from Lindbergh as well as dozens of pictures of him with Hessheimer and their children, lists the years in which the seven children were born: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1967.
It says Lindbergh "came and went as he pleased" during the last 17 years of his life, spending between three to five days with his Munich family about four to five times each year.
"Ten days before he died in August 1974, Lindbergh wrote three letters from his hospital bed to his three mistresses and requested 'utmost secrecy'," Schroeck writes, whose book includes a copy of that letter to Brigitte Hesshaimer.
"Marietta and Valeska, now in their 80s, have upheld that vow and haven't given any interviews. Brigitte's three children broke the wall of silence after their mother died in 2001 and revealed the truth about their father," he added.
My favorite quote was that he..."came and went as he pleased" .
Text of article:
Lindbergh had 7 secret children in Germany -book
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN, May 30 (Reuters) - American aviator Charles Lindbergh had three German mistresses simultaneously and seven secret children whom he visited and supported for decades, according to a new book published on Monday.
Eighteen months after genetic tests proved earlier claims by three Germans that Lindbergh was their father, their book called "The Double Life of Charles A. Lindbergh" says he fathered two more children with their aunt and two with his German secretary.
Lindbergh, who also had six children with his U.S. wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, became world famous for his daring 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 33 hours. He remained a worldwide celebrity until he died in 1974.
The new book recounts how Lindbergh started a romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer in 1957 when he was 55 and she was 32. As DNA tests confirmed, they had three children.
The book treads new ground with claims Lindbergh also romanced Brigitte's sister Marietta as well as a third woman, an acquaintance of the sisters named Valeska who was also Lindbergh's German translator and private secretary.
"Valeska was an extremely attractive blonde woman," writes the book's author Rudolf Schroeck.
Written in cooperation with the now middle-aged children, the book says all three women knew about Lindbergh's romances with the other women but more or less tolerated it.
"It was a secret 'menage a quatre', a four-way relationship that only Lindbergh knew the exact details about," Schroeck writes. "He was a man with three mistresses -- and a wife."
NEW DETAILS ABOUT LINDBERGH
According to Schroeck, Hesshaimer's sister Marietta had two sons with Lindbergh -- identified in the book only as Vago and Christoph. Valeska had a son and daughter with Lindbergh. Their names are not mentioned. Marietta and Valeska are still alive.
The book, which includes excerpts from 150 love letters from Lindbergh as well as dozens of pictures of him with Hessheimer and their children, lists the years in which the seven children were born: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1967.
It says Lindbergh "came and went as he pleased" during the last 17 years of his life, spending between three to five days with his Munich family about four to five times each year.
"Ten days before he died in August 1974, Lindbergh wrote three letters from his hospital bed to his three mistresses and requested 'utmost secrecy'," Schroeck writes, whose book includes a copy of that letter to Brigitte Hesshaimer.
"Marietta and Valeska, now in their 80s, have upheld that vow and haven't given any interviews. Brigitte's three children broke the wall of silence after their mother died in 2001 and revealed the truth about their father," he added.
My favorite quote was that he..."came and went as he pleased" .