Quantum Relative Gigolo – Albert Einstein had More Than 12 Side Chics

By modern standards, Albert Einstein’s womanizing was severe and unapologetic. He explicitly rejected monogamy, maintained a continuous rotation of mistresses, and treated his romantic partners with a distinct emotional coldness. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Einstein fundamentally believed that humans were not meant to stay with just one partner. In a 1953 letter consoling a friend whose husband was cheating, Einstein wrote: “I am sure you know that most men (as well as quite a number of women) are not monogamously endowed by nature.” He viewed monogamy as a forced social convention that fought against natural human impulses. [3, 5]

When thousands of pages of Einstein’s personal letters were unsealed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2006, historians discovered the true scale of his philandering. [6]

• The Harem: Biographers identified at least 10 to 12 distinct mistresses whom he dated concurrently or sequentially throughout his two marriages. [5]
• The Named Mistresses: His letters identify several prominent women, including Betty Neumann (his secretary), Margarete Lebach (a blonde Austrian), Estella Katzenellenbogen (a wealthy business owner), and Ethel Michanowski (a Berlin socialite). [7]
• The Russian Spy: Later in life, after his second wife Elsa died, he had a passionate affair with Margarita Konenkova, a woman later revealed to be a Soviet spy tasked with probing him for atomic secrets. [7]

Einstein did not sneak around or hide his behavior. He was brutally transparent, forcing his wives to accept it as the cost of being married to a genius. [6, 8, 9, 10]

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• With Elsa: He openly discussed his extramarital affairs with Elsa and even with his stepdaughter, Margot. He frequently brought his mistresses on family holidays, went to concerts with them, and had them drop him off at Elsa’s house. [6, 7, 11, 12]
• The Audacity: In one letter to Elsa, he defended his behavior with a mistress named “Mrs. M,” writing that she behaved beautifully because she gave him pleasure and “did not say a word to you about it.” He essentially expected his wife to appreciate the mistress’s discretion. [10]
• The Climax: At one point, he complained to his stepdaughter that the chasing from his various girlfriends was “getting out of control” and asked for help managing them. [10]

Interestingly, historians note a massive paradox in how Einstein viewed women. While he treated his romantic partners with casual disregard and viewed them as domestic or sexual conveniences, he treated women in science with immense respect and dignity. [13]

He used his immense clout to write powerful letters of recommendation for female physicists like Marietta Blau and fiercely defended the mathematical genius of Emmy Noether against the sexist academic establishment of Europe. He was entirely capable of viewing women as intellectual equals—he simply refused to be a loyal partner to them. [2, 13]