Claim:
Theodor Seuss Geisel — aka Dr. Seuss — cheated on his ill wife, causing her to kill herself, and then married his lover.
Rating:
Mixture ( About this rating? )
What's True:
Helen Palmer, Theodor Geisel's first wife, died by suicide in 1967 after years of health problems. Geisel married Audrey Dimond (née Stone) less than a year after Palmer's death and mere weeks after Dimond's divorce from her first husband.
What's Undetermined:
Some versions of this claim state Helen Palmer had cancer, but Snopes could not confirm this piece of her medical history. Nor, given that we could not find any statements from those directly involved, were we able to confirm whether Theodor Geisel started a romantic relationship with Dimond during Palmer's illness, or whether the alleged affair directly contributed to Palmer's death.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health, suicide or substance use crisis or emotional distress, reach out 24/7 to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) by dialing or texting 988 or using chat services at suicidepreventionlifeline.org to connect to a trained crisis counselor.
A claim that children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel — more commonly known as Dr. Seuss — cheated on his wife, author Helen Palmer, resurfaced on social media in September 2024.
The claim also alleged that Geisel's affair directly contributed to Palmer's death by suicide, after which Geisel married his much younger lover, Audrey Dimond (née Stone).
A 2012 Reddit thread in r/todayilearned specified the claim as such: "Dr. Seuss cheated on his wife while she was sick with cancer for 13 years. She committed suicide because of his infidelity, and he later married his mistress."
(specialKT on Reddit)
Other iterations of this claim, including a post on Reddit from 2016 and a YouTube video from March 2024, further insist that the affair was the direct cause of Palmer's suicide.
It is true that Palmer died by suicide and Geisel married Audrey Dimond less than a year later, but the motivations behind the events are complicated.
According to "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography" by Judith Morgan and Neil Morgan, Palmer's suicide note included:
Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, "failure, failure, failure…" I love you so much … I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you … My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed … Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years …
While it could be inferred that her writing is referring to an affair, the reasons for Palmer's actions are not provable by any available evidence. Considering all parties involved are now deceased — Palmer died in 1967, Geisel in 1991 and Audrey Geisel in 2018 — it is impossible to know for certain.
In "Theodor Geisel: A Portrait of the Man Who Became Dr. Seuss" by Donald Pease, Geisel's editor Walter Retan said of Geisel and Palmer's relationship: "They had so much in common, but they were driving each other crazy. Helen wasn't well, and she probably depressed Ted."
Further, there was no evidence of a cancer diagnosis for Palmer, although other medical issues throughout her life are known.
She contracted polio as a child, which likely exacerbated her health problems later in life. In the early 1930s, Palmer's ovaries were removed due to unknown abdominal pain. In the 1950s, she suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rapid paralysis that was often fatal in the days before the invention of the iron lung, inside which Palmer spent weeks with Geisel at her side. Eventually, she recovered but was left with chronic pain.
According to a neighbor, Palmer "was progressively more handicapped by the residuals of her polio, including one that particularly haunted her: She may have been going blind."
In "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel," a passage recalls the memory of Geisel's niece, Peggy, when she arrived at the Geisel home in the wake of her aunt's death: "As well as anyone, she knew of Helen's deteriorating health and the constant pain in her legs and feet since the paralysis." Peggy later recalled, "Whatever Helen did, she did it out of absolute love for Ted."
Julie Olfe, an employee of the Geisels, said Palmer's death "was her last and greatest gift to him."
Pease's book goes on to say:
Following the return of Helen's illness in 1964, he began to transfer his primary sense of belonging onto another family. That family was composed of Audrey Stone Dimond, who was then married to the chief cardiologist at Scripps Hospital, Grey Dimond, and her daughters, Lark and Lea. The Dimonds moved in the same social circles as the Geisels and they enjoyed each other's company. In 1965, he dedicated the Beginner Book "Fox in Socks" to Audrey of the "Mt. Soledad Lingual Laboratory." The next year he dedicated "The Cat in the Hat Songbook" to her two daughters, "Lea and Lark of Ludington Lane." Geisel's relationship with Audrey soon replaced his relationship with Helen as his primary emotional attachment.
There is no indication of when exactly the affair began, but a letter Geisel sent to a friend in May 1968, seven months after Palmer's death, suggested it began in 1963.
On the 21st of June, Audrey Dimond is going to Reno to divorce Grey Dimond… Audrey and I are going to be married about the first week in August. I am acquiring two daughters, aged nine and fourteen. I am rebuilding the house to take care of the influx. I am 64 years old. I am marrying a woman eighteen years younger… I have not flipped my lid. This is not a sudden nutty decision… This is an inevitable, inescapable conclusion to five years of four people's frustration. All I can ask you is to try to believe in me.
Indeed, Geisel and Dimond married on Aug. 5, 1968, at a courthouse in Reno, Nevada. Of the union, a profile of Audrey Geisel in the Nov. 29, 2000, edition of The New York Times said:
Audrey Dimond was married with two children when she fell in love with Ted Geisel. Mr. Geisel, 18 years her senior, was also married. In the wake of their affair, Mr. Geisel's wife, Helen, committed suicide, causing, as Mrs. Geisel puts it, ''a rather large ripple in the community of La Jolla.'' Mrs. Dimond divorced her husband to marry Mr. Geisel, 64, and when she did, her daughters, 9 and 14, were sent away to school.
Based on these findings, it seems likely there was a romantic relationship between Geisel and Dimond prior to Palmer's death and Dimond's divorce, but we could not uncover any direct quotes from the parties involved corroborating the timeline or details of the alleged affair, therefore we gave this claim a mixed rating.
Snopes has investigated other claims surrounding Dr. Seuss, including the author's history of racist illustrations , his incendiary political cartoons and whether he was a classmate of Kurt Vonnegut .
Sources:
"Helen Palmer, Children's Writer and Wife of Dr. Seuss, Is Dead." The New York Times, 24 Oct. 1967. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/1967/10/24/archives/helen-palmer-childrens-writer-and-wife-of-dr-seuss-is-dead.html .
Morgan, Judith, and Neil Morgan. Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography. 1st ed, Random House, 1995.
Pace, Eric. "Dr. Seuss, Modern Mother Goose, Dies at 87." The New York Times, 26 Sept. 1991. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/26/books/dr-seuss-modern-mother-goose-dies-at-87.html .
Pease, Donald E. Theodor Seuss Geisel. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Seelye, Katharine Q. "Audrey Geisel, 97, Dies; Dr. Seuss' Widow and Keeper of His Flame." The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2018. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/obituaries/audrey-geisel-dead.html .
Wadler, Joyce. "PUBLIC LIVES; Mrs. Seuss Hears a Who, and Tells About It." The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2000. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/29/nyregion/public-lives-mrs-seuss-hears-a-who-and-tells-about-it.html.
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