page_title: Personal life of Gene Roddenberry
section_title: Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett
hierarchical_section_title: Personal life of Gene Roddenberry / Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura from Star Trek.
context_page_description: Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series. While at Los Angeles City College, he entered into a relationship with Eileen-Anita Rexroat, who he went on to marry on June 20, 1942, before his deployment in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. The couple had two daughters together, Darleen Anita and Dawn Allison. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department, and during this time he was known to have had affairs with secretarial staff, thus endangering his marriage.
  Moving to California to pursue his writing career, he went on to become a television producer and became known as a womanizer. During the production of his series The Lieutenant, he entered into relationships with Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett, seeking to have an open relationship with both women. Nichols has since said that they broke up after this, but she was later found more than once in Roddenberry's office on Star Trek either nude or partly clothed.
context_section_description: Before his work on Star Trek, he began relationships with both Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett. After he met Nichols when she was cast in "To Set It Right", an episode of The Lieutenant, he began a friendship that lasted for the rest of his life. During the early period, prior to Star Trek, they entered into a romantic liaison that she described as falling in love. At the same time, after meeting Barrett during the filming of the episode "In the Highest Tradition", they became friends and soon entered into a relationship. After several months he introduced Nichols to Barrett, with whom he had also been having a relationship. At the time, Roddenberry wanted to remain in an open relationship with both women, but Nichols, recognizing Barrett's devotion to him, ended the affair as she did not want to be "the other woman to the other woman". Barrett and Nichols had met previously when Nichols auditioned for The Singing Nun.
  Nichols wrote about their relationship in her autobiography Beyond Uhura only after Roddenberry's death. She was concerned about their interracial relationship becoming public knowledge, and its potential impact on Roddenberry's career. They discussed it on several occasions but he maintained that he did not care about possible consequences for him. Barrett was not convinced that Roddenberry was going to leave his wife at the time, later explaining that he was troubled because he had made a promise to Eileen and took the commitment seriously. By the time he started on the series, Nichols said that they were only good friends as his involvement with Barrett continued. However, during the production of the first season, writer Ken Kolb entered Roddenberry's office to wish him a happy birthday and found Nichols there, naked and under the desk, also waiting for Roddenberry. During the third season, production assistant Ed Milkis entered Roddenberry's office to find him and Nichols. She was wearing only a letterman sweater.
caption: Roddenberry had a relationship with Nichelle Nichols (pictured in 1967) prior to work on Star Trek.
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