Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Refused to Go to Couple’s Therapy: Sources
Artists too busy painting masterpieces to attend marriage counseling
MEXICO CITY — Famed Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, whose 25-year romance included infidelity, alcoholism, divorce and a bunch of hook ups with cool famous people, were too busy painting timeless masterpieces to make time for couple’s therapy, according to sources whose grandparents knew the couple well.
After Rivera slept with Kahlo’s sister and Frida retaliated by hooking up with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky who lived down the street, the couple would have been “really solid candidates for weekly marriage counseling,” said Patricia Barrios, a Mexico City psychologist.
“I know they were busy painting post-revolutionary murals and self-portraits that would define Mexican and international art for generations,” Barrios said. “But they could have benefitted from a cognitive behavioral therapy session at least once a week, especially when Frida was lusting for Georgia O’Keefe and Chavela Vargas, or after Diego slept with Frida’s sister.”
According to sources, Frida and Diego did schedule a few sessions with a local therapist in their neighborhood of Coyoacán, but the couple canceled every time, claiming they were stuck at work painting artistic treasures that depict human suffering and Mexico’s class divide.