Papadopoulos married his first wife, Niki Vasileiadi, in 1941. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
[10] The marriage, however, ran into difficulty later and they eventually separated. The separation, however lengthy, could not lead to divorce at first because, under Greece's restrictive divorce laws of that era, spousal consent was required. To remedy this, in 1970, as Prime Minister of the dictatorship he
decreed a custom-made divorce law with a strict time limit (and a built-in
sunset clause) that enabled him to get the divorce.
[11] After having served its purpose, the law eventually expired automatically. After the divorce, Papadopoulos married his long-time
paramour Despina Gaspari in 1970, with whom he had a daughter.
[10]