Some famous men are remembered for their films, their music or their politics. Others are just as famous for the number they attached to their love life.
These are the ten men with the biggest claims, counting up to the most unbelievable one. A word of warning: almost none of these numbers can be checked, some come from the men themselves and some from biographers or rumors. Take every figure with a large pinch of salt.
10. Hugh Hefner (1,000+)
The founder of Playboy built his brand on the image of a man surrounded by women, living in the Playboy Mansion with a rotating cast of girlfriends. Hefner himself said he had slept with more than a thousand women.
In later years, several former girlfriends described life in the mansion as far less glamorous than the image, with curfews, allowances and strict house rules. The legend and the reality were not quite the same thing.
9. Jack Nicholson (2,000)
Hollywood’s most famous bad boy was linked to a long list of actresses and models over the decades. A 2013 biography by Marc Eliot put the number at around 2,000 women.
Nicholson has never confirmed the figure, but he has never seriously denied his reputation either. He has been single for most of his life, and for a long time he seemed happy to let the stories speak for themselves.
8. Julio Iglesias (3,000)
The Spanish crooner sold hundreds of millions of records with songs about love, and he apparently practiced what he sang. Iglesias claimed to have slept with around 3,000 women during his years on tour.
He later settled down with Dutch former model Miranda Rijnsburger, with whom he has five children. The number has followed him around ever since.
7. Mick Jagger (4,000)
The Rolling Stones frontman has been the image of a rock star lover for more than sixty years. A 2012 biography by Christopher Andersen estimated that Jagger had slept with about 4,000 women.
Jagger himself has never given a number. What is documented is that he has eight children with five different women, the youngest born in 2016, when he was 73.
6. Gene Simmons (4,600)
The Kiss bassist with the famous tongue made no secret of his conquests. Simmons claimed to have slept with more than 4,600 women and said he had taken Polaroid photos of many of them.
In 2011 he married Shannon Tweed, his partner of 28 years, and later said he regretted how he had treated her for much of that time.
5. Charlie Sheen (5,000)
The son of Martin Sheen grew up in a famous acting family and spent decades in the headlines for his private life. Around 5,000 is the number usually attached to his name, and he has been open about having paid for sex.
His character in Two and a Half Men was clearly based on his reputation. In 2015 he revealed he was HIV-positive, and he has since spoken about getting sober.
4. Warren Beatty (12,775)
A suspiciously precise number. A 2010 biography by Peter Biskind estimated that the actor had slept with 12,775 women before marrying Annette Bening in 1992.
Beatty, the biggest sex symbol of 1970s Hollywood, dismissed the claim. Even so, the number is now one of the most quoted facts about him, which shows how hard it is to shake a reputation like his.
3. John Holmes (14,000)
The first male star of the adult industry claimed to have slept with around 14,000 women, both on and off camera.
His life ended badly. Addicted to cocaine, he was linked to the 1981 Wonderland murders in Los Angeles, and after his HIV diagnosis he kept working without telling his co-stars. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1988, aged 43.
2. Wilt Chamberlain (20,000)
The basketball legend once scored 100 points in a single NBA game, a record that still stands. In his 1991 memoir A View from Above, he made an even more famous claim: he had slept with 20,000 women.
That would mean more than one new partner a day for most of his adult life. Hardly anyone believes it, and Chamberlain later suggested the number was meant to make a point about the emptiness of chasing quantity. It became part of sports folklore anyway.
1. Fidel Castro (35,000)
The most outrageous claim on this list belongs to a communist dictator. In the 2006 British documentary 638 Ways to Kill Castro, a source claimed the Cuban leader had slept with 35,000 women over four decades, supposedly two a day, lunch and dinner included.
There is no way to verify it, and it is almost certainly an exaggeration. But Castro did have numerous relationships and several children with different women, and in a closed regime with total control over the media, his private life was never open to scrutiny.
