Even historical figures like Einstein and Mozart had kinks and fetishes. Here's a look at what 8 famous men were into behind closed doors.

Dr. Albert Einstein is shown seated inside by the window, writing.Bettmann via Getty Images

• Kinky sex and sexual fetishes have existed since the beginning of time, a sex researcher said.
• Albert Einstein was known to be a serial cheater and didn't seem to show any remorse for it.

Many assume that adventurous sex practices came into style following the female sexual liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. But sexual fetishes and kinky sex actually existed hundreds of years before then.

Fetishes have cropped up throughout history, according to Esmé Louise James, an Australian researcher studying eroticism across eighteenth-century literature. She also discusses the intimate details of kinky history on TikTok.

James shared the kinks and fetishes of famous figures like Irish author James Joyce and physicist Albert Einstein during her appearance on the Sex and Psychology podcast, created and hosted by Kinsey Institute researcher Justin Lehmiller.

According to James, indulging in the erotic and the taboo is nothing new. She said that cultural norms and events, like religious morals and health epidemics, often inform the sexual interests that are common during a certain era. During the AIDS epidemic, for example, foot fetishes grew in popularity, said James.

Here are some of the men James discussed, plus a few more you may be surprised to hear about: