Chiang Kai-shek - Wives

Wives

• Mao Fumei (毛福梅, 1882–1939) Died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment. Mother to his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo.

• Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889–1972) Came to Taiwan and died in Taipei.

• Chen Jieru (陳潔如, "Jennie", 1906–1971) Lived in Shanghai. Moved to Hong Kong later and died there.

• Soong May-ling (宋美齡, 1898–2003) Moved to the United States after Chiang Kai-shek's death. Arguably his most famous wife. She bore him no children.

In an arranged marriage, Chiang was married to a fellow villager named Mao Fumei. While married to Mao, Chiang adopted two concubines (concubinage was still a common practice for well-to-do, non-Christian males in China): he married Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889–1972) in 1912 and Chen Jieru (陳潔如, 1906–1971) in December 1921. While he was still living in Shanghai, Chiang and Yao adopted a son, Wei-kuo. Chen adopted a daughter in 1924, named Yaoguang (瑤光), who later adopted her mother's surname. Chen's autobiography refuted the idea that she was a concubine. Chen claiming that, by the time she married Chiang, he had already divorced Mao, and that Chen was therefore his wife. Chiang and Mao had a son, Ching-kuo, and a daughter, Chien-hua.

According to the memoirs of Chen Jieru, Chiang's second wife, she contracted gonorrhea from Chiang soon after their marriage. He told her that he acquired this disease after separating from his first wife and living with his concubine Yao Yecheng, as well as with many other women he consorted with. His doctor explained to her that Chiang had sex with her before completing his treatment for the disease. As a result, both Chiang and Ch'en Chieh-ju believed they had become sterile, which would explain why he had only one child, by his first wife; however, a purported miscarriage by Soong May-ling in August of 1930 would, if it actually occurred, cast serious doubt on whether this was true.