What looks like a sweet vacation photo of Tom Jones and Marjorie Wallace hides a much deeper, complicated history. At the height of his fame in the ’60s and ’70s, Tom Jones was a known ladies’ man—once claiming to have slept with 250 women a year—despite being married to his wife Linda for nearly six decades. Among his many flings, one affair stood out: Marjorie Wallace, the first American Miss World, crowned in 1973.
Tom and Marjorie met backstage in London when she was 19. Their affair became public in 1974 when they were photographed kissing on a beach in Barbados. The scandal cost Marjorie her crown, especially since she was also engaged to race car driver Peter Revson at the time.