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Sean Connery’s remarks about hitting women first appeared in a 1965 Playboy interview, decades before renewed attention after his death in 2020. A separate wave of circulation followed Barbara Walters’s death in 2022, when a clip from her 1987 interview with Connery spread again. Those are distinct moments in a longer public record—and the quotations remain attributed to reporting, with Connery later disputing the accuracy of the 1965 wording.
What did Sean Connery say about hitting women?
In its October 31, 2020 coverage of Connery’s death, the Los Angeles Times reproduced this statement from a 1965 Playboy interview: “I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman — although I don’t recommend doing it in the same way you’d hit a man.” The newspaper said the interviewer had asked about roughing up a woman in the context of James Bond.
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Connery returned to the subject in a December 1987 television interview with Barbara Walters. The Guardian describes his position as accepting a limited-force slap in certain circumstances. In a later, 1993 Vanity Fair interview, Connery was quoted as saying: “There are women who take it to the wire. That’s what they are looking for, the ultimate confrontation. They want a smack.” The Guardian reproduced that quotation in its obituary.
These are historical remarks reported by later publications, not advice or an endorsed standard. Connery also disputed the accuracy of the 1965 quotation, according to the Irish Times. That reported dispute does not, by itself, settle what the original interview said.
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When did the comments resurface?
1965: The Playboy interview
The remarks at the center of the controversy date to the 1965 interview. They were not first made after Connery’s death or during his later conversation with Walters.
1987: Barbara Walters interviews Connery
Walters interviewed Connery on television in December 1987. The interview revisited the issue raised by the earlier Playboy remarks; it is a separate source and date, not the origin of the 1965 quotation.
1993: Vanity Fair comments
Connery made the further remarks quoted above in a 1993 Vanity Fair interview, as reported by the Guardian. They are often part of the same discussion, but they should not be folded into the 1965 or 1987 interviews.
2020: Coverage after Connery’s death
Connery died on October 31, 2020. News coverage revisited the earlier statements in obituaries and reports about his life, including the Los Angeles Times and the Guardian.
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2022–2023: The Walters clip circulates again
After Walters died on December 30, 2022, a clip from her 1987 interview with Connery circulated anew. The Independent reported on that renewed attention on January 1, 2023. This later clip circulation followed Walters’s death, rather than Connery’s in 2020.
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What is established—and what remains disputed?
- Chronology: The key dates are the Playboy interview in 1965, the Walters interview in 1987, Connery’s further comments in 1993, renewed coverage after his death in 2020, and renewed circulation of the Walters clip after her death in 2022.
- Attribution: The quotations here are reproduced in secondary reporting by the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and the Irish Times; the original Playboy issue and the full Walters recording have not been independently verified here.
- Dispute: The Irish Times reported that Connery said the Playboy remarks had been inaccurately quoted. The available accounts do not resolve that disagreement.
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