The case was not without threats.
The director Leonid Gaidai was amazing, but the family man was rather mediocre. For 40 years the filmmaker lived with his wife Nina Grebeshkova. However, this marriage hung in the balance.
According to rumors, the maestro not only filmed naked actresses in his paintings, but also showed an active interest in them. At one time, Svetlana Svetlichnaya and Natalya Varley spoke about harassment by the director.
Grebeshkova, on the other hand, had to put up with not only her lover’s “courtship” of other women, but also with the fact that he openly called her “ugly”. The actress gave up her career for the sake of her tyrant husband and took on her shoulders all the household duties, she even screwed the light bulbs on her own.
One day, Nina Pavlovna’s patience ran out – she packed her suitcase and seriously prepared to leave Gaidai. Then the director said only six words that stopped his wife. “Ninok, I can’t live without you,” said the filmmaker, after which Grebeshkova never again tried to divorce him.
