Judy Blume Had Affairs Before Ending Her First Marriage with Husband, Who Only ‘Accepted’ Her Writing Career: Biography
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Angela AndaloroFri, May 15, 2026 at 7:23 PM UTC
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Judy Blume, 1984
Credit: Bettmann Archive
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Judy Blume was married to John Blume from 1959 to 1975
In the year before calling it quits, Blume had admitted to having two affairs, a new biography says
Judy experienced the negative attitudes toward women after divorce in an era when the choice was less common
Judy Blume went through an unexpected period of her life as she came to terms with the fact that her first marriage was over.
In Judy Blume: A Life, journalist Mark Oppenheimer conducted exclusive interviews with Blume and accessed her papers and correspondence as part of his dive into the author's life.
Oppenheimer's discussion of Judy's personal life focused, in part, on her marriages. Judy Sussman married for the first time in 1959, when she tied the knot with John Blume just weeks after her father's death.
The complicated start to the relationship didn't deter the young couple from some happy years, during which they built their family. The pair shared daughter Randy and son Lawrence.
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Judy Blume, 1979
Credit: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty
When it came to Judy's career, John "accepted" it, under the condition that it didn't inconvenience him.
Oppenheimer wrote, "He 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.' "
Judy began wanting different things out of the relationship than John did, due to both societal and personal changes.
"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," Judy said, per the biography.
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The author spent years considering the possibility ending her marriage. According to Oppenheimer, it wasn't until 1974 that Judy started exploring life outside her marriage, reasoning to herself, "It was the seventies. There was a lot going on."
According to the biographer, "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). And on a vacation she took without John or the children, she had sex with 'a very young guy at the beach.' "
The "brief, but informative" period of infidelity was driven by Judy's desire "to be bad," but ended as quickly as it began when the consequences of her actions delivered a scare.
"She got the full post-pill, pre-AIDS experience of cheating: her second extramarital lover, the young guy at the beach, called to say he had a venereal disease. When Judy went to her doctor, he seemed unconcerned— he prescribed penicillin and told her she'd be fine—but insisted she tell her other partners. So she told John," Oppenheimer wrote.
Judy told the biographer that John took the news "very well," explaining, "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 reportedly felt her husband was "very decent" in his handling of the situation, as she felt he was in 1975, when they decided to go their separate ways. Judy learned that while she was happy with the decision she made, the world still had some catching up to do in its treatment of a woman who was single after divorce.
John's mother, Clara Blume, reportedly tried to forbid them from separating, with the belief that if Judy hadn't gotten so deeply invested in her career, the marriage wouldn't have suffered. Similarly, Judy didn't find many other women to be empathetic to her journey.
In one example, Oppenheimer writes, "When Judy informed one of the neighborhood wives about the divorce, the woman said to her, 'Don't expect anybody to feel sorry for you.' The woman soon fixed up John — handsome, affluent, newly single — on a date. It was a cold reality, Judy said, 'Women weren't necessarily there for each other then.' "
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
