The name Althea Flynt may not immediately strike a chord even if she had a career as a magazine editor. However, when he is linked to porn editor, Larry Flynt, the lines immediately fall into place. She was one of Larry’s wives and co-editor of his magazine, Hustler where she also served as an editor.
Althea has faced many challenges throughout her life, including growing up in an abusive home, assault by would-be adopters, substance abuse, and battling AIDS. Sadly, she died at the age of 33 on June 27, 1987 due to accidental drowning.
Who was Althea Flynt? The Life and Times of Larry Flynt’s Wife
She was born in Marietta, Ohio on the 6th day of November 1953. Named Althea Leasure, she was one of five children of Richard and June; her siblings include Sherry, Debbie, Marsha and Richard. His childhood home has been described as abusive and embroiled in murder issues. When she was 8, her father shot and killed her mother, grandfather and her mother’s best friend, before putting the gun to her head and killing himself.
Subsequently, Althea, along with three of her siblings, were sent to Xenia, Ohio, where they were placed in the OSSO (Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphanage) home. Far from the relief and refuge she must have expected when she was taken home, her apparent contract of sadness and abuse only changed address. As if losing her parents and being raised away from home wasn’t enough, she was sexually assaulted in the homes of potential adopters and repeatedly ran away.
To escape his horrors, Althea, in 1971, aged 17, applied for a job as a go-go dancer at the Hustler club in Columbus, Ohio. It was there that she met Larry Flynt who happened to be the owner of the club. Five years later, the duo married on August 21, 1976, and she in turn became Larry’s fourth wife. Now Althea Flynt, she became co-editor, with Larry, of the pornographic magazine Hustler and became the magazine’s full-size front page centerfold. Later, she served as its publisher, as well as editor and until her death, she directed the development, management and publication of the magazine.
Moreover, during her husband’s ride with new son in 1977, she managed to keep the media house afloat and maintain its popularity. During other pivotal episodes in Larry’s life, like his near-fatal shooting in Georgia in 1978 that left him paralyzed from the waist down and multiple bouts of bipolar disorder, Althea Flynt not only cared for the empire Flynt, but also of her husband.
In 1984, following her bipolar diagnosis, Larry ran for President of the United States. His attempt to rule the country deeply shattered their fortunes and then ended Althea’s already blossoming plan to launch a new non-pornographic magazine, The Rage which was supposed to focus on the punk subculture.
Althea Flynt – The Last Years and Death
Larry’s shooting and subsequent surgeries subjected him to so much pain that he had to pop a number of prescribed painkillers. However, while fighting for a pain-free life via drugs, Althea took them in 1982 and ended up addicted to the substances. This marked the beginning of his downward spiral. The following year, she discovered that she had AIDS which was due to a blood transfusion during a hysterectomy as she had always used clean needles for her medication.
Althea Flynt died June 27, 1987; her disappearance took place at the couple’s Bel-Air mansion in Los Angeles. Aged 33 at the time of her death, the cause of death was listed as drowning. She allegedly passed out from a drug overdose and drowned in a bathtub. However, her husband said that if Althea had not drowned she would still have died within a year as she was already in the advanced stages of AIDS at the time of her death. Althea was buried in the grounds of the Flynt family cemetery, located at Lakeville in Salyersville, Kentucky.
Flynt remarried in 1988 to Elizabeth Berrios, his former nurse. Althea Flynt was portrayed by Courtney Love in the 1996 film, The People vs. Larry Flynt while Woody Harrelson played Larry. While Love was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, his counterpart won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his.
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