Author Jess C. Scott is quoted as saying, “What’s the whole point of being pretty on the outside when you’re so ugly on the inside?” The exact same question will pop into your mind once you come to know the bad side of the following famous people. These people are considered geniuses in their field, but they have another side which was kept hidden from public view. Keep reading to find out the 10 very ugly facts about famous people.

1 Charles Dickens separated from his wife with whom he had 10 kids, after he fell in love with an 18-year-old actress, then went on to have a letter published in numerous newspapers in which he accused his wife of being responsible for the separation, calling her stupid, morbidly depressed, and a bad mother.

During the mid-1850s, Charles Dickens, the author who wrote stories about domestic bliss and moral ideals, fell out of love with his wife, Catherine. Catherine and Dickens were married for 20 years before his adulterous affair with a teenage actress, Ellen “Nelly” Ternan, began. Soon, Dickens demanded a legal separation from Catherine and took custody of nine out of their 10 children.

After separation, Dickens wrote a statement in which he blamed it all on his wife. The statement appeared in The Times and many other leading newspapers. He also wrote a letter for private circulation. In the letter, he stated that his wife suffered from some mental disorder. Since Dickens was a famous author, he was able to successfully hide his affair. His affair came out years later when his daughter, Katey Dickens, mentioned it in her biography.(1,2)

2 Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer harboring deep-seated prejudices against Jews. He published several books against Jews and used slave labor in his plants in Germany.

Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, is regarded as the pioneer of the automobile. His mass-produced cars made cars an affordable means of transport for American people. But behind this efficient industrialist was a Nazi sympathizer who promoted his anti-semantic views through books and newspapers. Ford owned the Dearborn Independent newspaper, and for years he used it to publish numerous anti-semantic articles. He also published several books including The International Jew that attacked and demonized Jews.

Another lesser-known fact about Henry Ford: during the Second World War Ford knew about and allowed slave labor in his German subsidiary plant. Also, his European division plants used to make equipment for the Nazi military.(1,2,3,4)

3 Dr. Seuss had an affair while his wife suffered from cancer and depression. A few months after his wife’s suicide, he married his mistress.

Dr. Seuss’ wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, had a long history of various illnesses including cancer. But when her husband of 41 years had an affair with Audrey Stone Dimond, it broke her. At that time, Dimond was a married woman and 18 years younger than Dr. Seuss. Helen committed suicide on October 23, 1967. Just eight months later on June 21, 1968, Dr. Seuss married Dimond.(1,2)

4 Thomas Edison invented very few of the things people think he did. He had a small team of people he would pay next to nothing to come up with ideas which he would then patent and take credit for. He also claimed to have no formal education, but that’s not true.

Take any elementary science book and you will find the name of Thomas Alva Edison. Edison is credited with the invention of the light bulb, but actually, he never invented the light bulb. During the late 1800s, electric lights existed and so did the incandescent light bulb. But they existed only as street lights and were not used for household purposes.

What Edison actually did was find out the best material for the filament. Edison and his team at his “invention factory” tried and tested more than 6,000 possible materials for the filament before they successfully found the right one: carbonized bamboo.When Edison made the invention public, he went to great lengths to advertise the efficiency of the filament. By promoting his image and claiming that he was the sole inventor, he successful patented the light bulb. Hence, he is credited with the invention of the light bulb.

Edison was also good at inventing myths to boost his public image. He used to claim that he never attended school and is entirely self-taught. Reality: as a child, Edison had three years of formal education. He also used to attend chemistry classes at New York City’s Cooper Union while he was a budding inventor.

Another image-promoting fact Edison stated frequently was that he never needed more than three hours of sleep. Well, it’s only half true because Edison used to take a lot of small naps throughout the day. So, by taking a number of catnaps, he used to piece together a full night’s rest.(1,2,3)

5 Ted Kennedy drove a car with a passenger off of a bridge into a channel, got out, left the scene, went back to his hotel room, fell asleep and didn’t report the accident for nine hours. The passenger drowned, Ted got a two-month sentence, and even that was suspended.

US senator, Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy, was the youngest of the four Kennedy brothers. Belonging to the affluent Kennedy clan, Ted was in line to become the US president after his brother, John F. Kennedy. But the chance went down the drain when his heartless side was exposed during the Chappaquiddick incident of Friday, July 18, 1969.

On that fateful day, a drunk Ted was returning back from a party along with a girl named Mary Jo. Ted was driving towards his family compound on Martha’s Vineyard when suddenly he lost control and veered off a bridge and into a tidal channel. Somehow, Ted got out of the car and swam ashore to save himself leaving Mary Jo alone in the car.

After reaching land, he got back to the street and went to his motel. There he complained to the manager about a noisy party, then went to his room, took a shower, and went to sleep. After waking up, he ordered a newspaper, spoke to a friend and two lawyers, and finally called the police nine hours after the incident occurred. Ted Kennedy’s family’s reputation saved him from being charged with homicide, and the only punishment he got was a two-year suspension and the loss of driving license for a year.

Divers who visited the scene later estimated that Mary Jo could have been saved if Ted would have reported the incident immediately. Actually, Mary Jo had not drowned immediately after the incident. She survived for several hours inside the car and died only when the oxygen ran out.(1,2)

6 Arthur Miller had a son with Down’s syndrome whom he immediately institutionalized a week after birth, never visited him, and didn’t even mentioned him in his memoirs.

Arthur Miller is a famous American playwright who is known for his plays such as Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953). He married three times. His first wife was Mary Slattery, the second was Marilyn Monroe, and his third wife was Inge Morath. He had two children with his first wife and two children with his third wife. His fourth child, Daniel, was relatively unknown to the world as Miller never acknowledged his presence. The reason: Daniel had Down’s syndrome.

Due to Down’s syndrome, Miller committed Daniel to an institute when he was just a week old. Daniel’s mother used to visit him every Sunday but he never met his father until 1995. Weeks before his death, Miller mentioned Daniel in his will and gave him an equal share in his property with the rest three children. Their relationship was publicly mentioned for the first time in 2003 in the biography of Miller written by Martin Gottfried.(1,2)

7 During the Bengal famine of 1943, Canada, US, and Australia made offers to export wheat to India, but Winston Churchill said India has adequate stocks and instead diverted the food stocks to the Mediterranean to stock up for the Tunisia Campaign. Three million Indians died due to the famine.

Winston Churchill, usually known as the “greatest Briton ever,” is one of the main reasons behind the Bengal Famine of 1943–44. Nearly four million people of the Indian subcontinent died due to a shortage of food. During this time, World War II was going on and India’s natural resources were being exploited by British Raj. Een though famine was spreading in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Bangladesh. The tax was increased to 60% by the British government so that it could compensate the lives lost but not affect the amount of net revenue collected.

Shipping of grains was also denied by Britain. The British government stated that shipping would be dangerous due to the ongoing world war. When Australia offered wheat, it was transported to the British troops in the Mediterranean and the Balkans. US and Canada too offered food during Bengal famine. But they were denied outright.

Winston Churchill once told the Secretary of State for India, Leopold Amery, that, “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”(1,2,3)

8 Grover Cleveland sexually assaulted a girl, threatened her if she went to the authorities, then had her publicly shamed when she had his illegitimate baby.

Grover Cleveland, the former president of US, was the only president who served two, non-consecutive terms in office. He is usually known for his courage and honesty, but behind the reputation of the courageous president lies the face of a rapist.

In 1873, Cleveland was courting a 38-year old sales clerk, Maria Haplin, who worked at a department store in Buffalo, New York. On the evening of December 15, 1873, Haplin was going to attend friend’s birthday party when she met Cleveland on the way. On Cleveland’s insistence, Haplin went with him for dinner. After dinner, Cleveland escorted Haplin to her boarding house and then proceeded to sexually assault her. When she threatened him that she would notify the authorities, Cleveland said he would ruin her and then left.

Six weeks later, Haplin became aware that she was pregnant with Cleveland’s child. The baby was born on September 14, 1874. Just after the boy’s birth, Cleveland arranged to have the child forcibly removed and placed in an orphanage. Using his power, he threw Haplin into a lunatic asylum, but Haplin was released, thanks to an honest medical director.

In 1884, Cleveland was nominated for president. Soon, media dug out and exposed the existence of his illegitimate child. To save himself, Cleveland tarnished Haplin’s image by calling her a harlot who drank to excess and had physical relationships with at least three married men. Cleveland’s PR even went on to say that he showed “courage” and took responsibility for the child’s conception as he was the only bachelor among all of Haplin’s gentlemen callers.(source)

9 Pablo Picasso drove his first wife into a mental breakdown, had several mistresses, one of whom killed herself, and two became emotionally traumatized/insane.

The world-renowned Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso, needs no introduction. His art and paintings speak for themselves. The only downside of Picasso was that he couldn’t be faithful to his two wives, nor with his numerous mistresses. His affair with 17-year old Marie-Thérèse Walter while he was married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, destroyed Olga. She went through a mental breakdown, separated from Picasso, and even urged for a divorce. But Picasso was reluctant to divide his property, so, he declined the divorce.

After Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso’s next great muse was artist and photographer Dora Maar. But in 1943, Picasso left Maar for a much younger Françoise Gilot. Maar suffered from complete mental collapse and went into a nun-like seclusion. Gilot never married Picasso but had two children with him. Picasso once told Gilot, “Women are machines for suffering” and “For me, there are only two kinds of women, goddesses and doormats.” After their nine-year affair, Gilot left Picasso due to the physical abuse inflicted on her. In 1961, Picasso married Jacqueline Roque. Thirteen years after the death of Picasso, Roque killed herself by gunshot.(1,2)

10 John Lenon was a self-confessed violent man in real life. He used to beat his wife and even emotionally abused his son Julian.

John Lenon, the famous Beatles singer, is a legend in the musical world. Equally famous is his violent and abusive nature against his wives and son. Lenon himself confessed during an interview with Playboy that he used to hit his wife. He used to be physically violent with her and kept her away from things she loved. His first wife, Cynthia, had written in her book that Lenon once slapped her in the face just because he was jealous.

Lenon was also abusive towards his son, Julian Lenon. Julian had never made a secret of how his father abused him emotionally. According to Julian, his father used to be emotionally absent. He also felt jealousy as his father was more loving towards Sean (Lenon and Yoko Ono’s son). Julian considers Sir Paul McCartney (Lenon’s former bandmate) more of a father figure than his own father. During an interview, Lenon claimed that Julian was an unplanned child and was “born out of a bottle of whiskey.”(1,2)