Personal Life
She married Carl Friedan, a theatre producer, in 1947 while working at UE News. Friedan continued to work after marriage, first as a paid employee and, after 1952, as a freelance journalist. The couple divorced in May 1969. Friedan stated in her memoir Life So Far (2000) that Carl had beaten her during their marriage; friends such as Dolores Alexander recalled having to cover up black eyes from Carl's abuse in time for press conferences (Brownmiller 1999, p. 70). Carl Friedan denied abusing her in an interview with Time magazine shortly after the book was published, describing the claim as a "complete fabrication". She later said, on Good Morning America, "I almost wish I hadn't even written about it, because it's been sensationalized out of context. My husband was not a wife-beater, and I was no passive victim of a wife-beater. We fought a lot, and he was bigger than me." Carl Friedan died in December 2005.
The Friedans had three children: Emily, Daniel and Jonathan. One of their sons, Daniel Friedan, is a noted theoretical physicist.
In 1973 Friedan was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II.
Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2006, her 85th birthday.
Read more about this topic: Betty Friedan
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