Charlie Chaplin Marries Mildred Harris

On 23 October 1918, Chaplin, age 29, married the popular child-actress, Mildred Harris, who was 16.

They had one son, Norman Spencer Chaplin, born on 7 July 1919, who died three days later. Chaplin separated from Harris by late 1919, moving back into the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The couple divorced in November 1920, with Harris getting some of their community property and a US$100,000 settlement. Chaplin admitted that he "was not in love, now that [he] was married [he] wanted to be and wanted the marriage to be a success." During the divorce, Chaplin claimed Harris had an affair with noted actress of the time Alla Nazimova, rumored to be fond of seducing young actresses.

On October 23, 1918 she married actor Charlie Chaplin, a union which caused a scandal because Harris was sixteen years old and Chaplin was twenty-nine. The marriage was forced by a pregnancy claim on Harris' part which later turned out to be a false alarm. It is uncertain whether the claim was believed to be genuine, or a fabrication to trap Chaplin (who was having an affair with the underage Harris) into marriage. Soon after the marriage, Harris did become pregnant and gave birth to a son, Norman Spencer Chaplin on July 7, 1919, but the child was born extremely deformed and lived only three days. He was buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery under a headstone with the inscription The Little Mouse.