So, you ask why there was no Pretty Woman 2 the sequel to Pretty Woman released in 1990 starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere? The story was originally loosely based on a true story, and the truth is, had they used the same story to inspire a follow-up film, no one would want to see it.
It was much better to end the film on a happy note. The truth is that the story that inspired the film did not end that way.
Pretty Woman 2 The Sequel
In the year that followed they lived together as their “engagement” that would have led to the wedding that they had planned, a wedding that never happened.
The majority of the engagement cohabitation went as spectacularly as you might like to believe, but Vivian Ward (not her real name), the character played by Julia Roberts, begins to revert to her old ways. In real life, there were so many things that were going on deep within the psyches of Ward that could not have been unraveled no matter how much Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, loved her or showered her with his affection.
So, we never were exposed to the part of the story where we uncover Lewis’ preponderance to sleep soundly. This enabled Ward to engage in nighttime activities that had he known about them, would have led to the end of the relationship. Instead of him waking to catch her in the act, he slept soundly through her shenanigans.
After a while, the Gere character is visited in a dream by a dead relative who suggests that his bride-to-be may be less than faithful. Unwilling to believe the visitation still left him curious, and he certainly could not accuse her of infidelity, based on a dream. After pondering the situation, he decided to use a tape recorder which he placed in her nightstand to record while the couple while they slept.
He promised himself that he would only use this method of slight surveillance for three days, then drop the whole thing. Without the time necessary to listen to the recordings completely, Lewis skims through the tapes to discover that while he is clearly sleeping with his heavy nighttime breathing in the background, Ward is actively involved in phone sex with other people.
Unwilling to share his discovery process to her, he does insist on their having a serious talk about evolving developments in their burgeoning relationship.
During an intimate moment, as they are laying on the bed together, and Ward is intimately caressing Lewis, looking at him with those beautiful, loving eyes, he can’t help but hear the replay of what he had heard on those tapes inside his head.
He sits up in bed and declares that this as good a time as any to have the talk about their relationship.
He says that he knows she is having sex over the phone with people who could include former clientele.
Ward sits up and proclaims that she knew that Lewis was too good to be true. She accuses him of never truly loving her and has been and will ever be suspicious of her activities and she refuses to submit herself to that kind of abuse, not for love, not for him, any lifestyle, or any amount of money.
She calls for a cab, packs a small bag, tells him that if she walks out “that door” he will never see her again, and promptly vacates the estate.
Dismayed and broken-hearted, Lewis, who never had the chance to talk to her or have any attempt to communicate, work this out, seek counsel, or anything that might have made for an interesting film premise, returns to the tape recordings to listen to them in detail, to see what he might have missed.
This process of listening more closely reveals evidence of the physical sex acts that were taking place while Lewis’ was fast asleep. Sexual sounds, vocalizations, physical writhing, moans, and ecstatic breathing, all further breaking Lewis’ heart, and leaving him feeling foolish and stupid.
Yet, he loved Ward, longed for her, and was determined to make things right with her so that they could resume their unique brand of love story.
So, he hired a private detective to find her.
The discoveries uncovered by the private investigator may well be fodder for a worthwhile film, but not as a sequel to Pretty Woman.
The private investigator’s discovery reveals Ward’s acting out the various methods employed by modern prostitutes to engage in sexual acts, some for financial considerations, and some without, to satisfy an unquenchable desire for unfamiliar and various sexual encounters.
It is as if, Ward’s separation from Lewis sends her in a downward spiral into the cesspool of life’s underbelly to embrace a lifestyle that covers the entire spectrum of the common sex worker in all phases of life.
The private investigator surveils Ward for a full nine months, documenting every scenario, client, and rapid succession of clients, including times, dates, and locations, augmented by both audio and video recordings.
Lewis is shocked by his growing knowledge of the intimate and seedy goings-on behind the scenes of being a call girl in today’s day and age. In the beginning, he thought there might be hope for her, thinking that he might be able to save her from this life.
He felt as though she was only acting out in this manner because she would rather do that than face the truth, admit that she may have a sexual addiction or be haunted by demons of her past. For her, it was easier to just give in and return to her former life, than to do the hard work that would be necessary to face the demons and move forward in love with Lewis.
With the help of the private investigator, Lewis arranges to be in the vicinity of a location where she is working, to create a “random” meeting in public. She spots him first and disappears into the crowd.
Lewis, played in Pretty Woman by Richard Gere, realizes that he has waited nine months for her to reach out to him to no avail and decides that maybe a true and lasting love with someone he was so enamored with may not be a part of his life and submerges himself even more into his successful law practice.
Nobody knows whatever became of the real lady of the night that was played by Julia Roberts.
And that is why there is no Pretty Woman 2 sequel to the 1990 film, Pretty Woman.