He had notorious affairs with actresses Pola Negri, Helen Morgan and Lupe Vélez (all detailed in his 1975 autobiography The World I Lived In). In 1934, Jessel married silent movie star Norma Talmadge, causing a scandal because Talmadge was married at the time that they started their affair. After their divorce in 1939, he caused further scandal by breaking into her house with a pistol and firing shots at her current lover.
In 1969 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored George Jessel for his charity work by awarding him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a Special Academy Award.