Robert Redford reportedly had to fend off some of Hollywood’s most iconic women, including Jane Fonda and an “infatuated” Barbra Streisand.
Even Meryl Streep confessed to having a “huge crush” on him while filming Out of Africa.
The legendary actor, who passed away Tuesday at 89 at his Utah home, had a charm that captivated everyone — a fact reflected in the outpouring of heartfelt tributes from his leading ladies, including Demi Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand cuddle up on the set of “The Way We Were.”
Sources say Barbra Streisand may never reveal whether her on-screen chemistry with Robert Redford extended off-camera.
According to writer Robert Hofler, Streisand took it upon herself to persuade Redford to star alongside her in the 1973 classic The Way We Were and admitted she was “infatuated” with the actor.
Redford, however, reportedly wore “two athletic supporters” during filming to “protect himself,” aware of Streisand’s rumored past romances with co-stars.
He also encouraged her to wear a bikini for their intimate scenes to ensure the shots remained “pretty G-rated.”
Barbra Streisand joined Robert Redford at the 2002 Oscars when he received an honorary statuette.
Still, Redford was careful to maintain his image. During one of their sex scenes in The Way We Were, he reportedly refused to say the line, “It will be better this time.”
“He was never bad in bed,” writer Robert Hofler noted in The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen — meaning his character could never be either.
One Streisand insider believes there may have been some off-screen flirtation between the two, though the singer is unlikely to ever confirm it.
Jane Fonda, who made five films with Robert Redford including Barefoot in the Park, has said she was in love with him.
After his passing, Streisand shared on Instagram: “Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense, and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie.”
Fonda told The Post, “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
The pair starred in five films together, including 1967’s Barefoot in the Park, the big-screen adaptation of Neil Simon’s Broadway play in which they played young newlyweds.
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda remained close friends, last appearing together in their 2018 film Our Souls at Night.
In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Fonda, now 87, admitted, “I was always in love with Robert Redford … and nothing happened because I was married and he was married.”
Redford’s response, several years later: “I didn’t know she was in love with me!”
At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Fonda added, “He did not like to kiss … And he’s always in a bad mood, and I always thought it was my fault. He’s a very good person. He just has an issue with women.” She did not elaborate on what she thought the issue might be.
Despite this, Redford made it clear during the 2018 press tour for Our Souls at Night that he adored Fonda. The film follows a widower and widow who lean on each other as they navigate grief, reflecting the warmth and respect in their real-life friendship.
Meryl Streep revealed that by the fifth take of the famous hair-washing scene in Out of Africa, she was “in love” with Robert Redford.
“Working with Jane [Fonda] was easy,” Redford said. “Things just kind of fell into place between us, and there wasn’t much more to think about.”
Streep, too, was captivated by Redford, particularly during a scene in which he tenderly washes her hair by a river while reciting lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
“It’s a sex scene in a way, because it’s so intimate,” the 75-year-old actress told Cannes last year. “We’ve seen so many scenes of people… well, having sex, but we don’t see that loving touch, that care.”
Even though they were warned about wild animals in the water, Streep laughed: “By take five, I was so in love! I didn’t want it to end that day, even in spite of the hippos.”
Michelle Pfeiffer, who starred opposite Robert Redford in Up Close and Personal, paid tribute: “Until we meet again, my friend.”
Meryl Streep admitted, “I developed this huge crush on him, which made it easier to do the love story,” and explained what made him so irresistible.
“He has an unusual quality for a man — he has a very receptive way about him and is an incredibly good listener,” she said. “That’s an attribute people usually associate with women. So for women, he’s very easy to talk to.”
Two decades later, the pair reunited when Redford directed her in the 2007 thriller Lions for Lambs.
“One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace, my lovely friend,” Streep said in a statement Tuesday.
Robert Redford had four children with his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, with the couple pictured alongside two of their children in 1971.
Redford and Van Wagenen were married from 1958 to 1985 and had four children: sons James and Scott (who tragically died of SIDS in 1959) and daughters Amy and Shauna.
In 2009, he married German artist Sibylle Szaggars, who was 20 years his junior.
