Following several years as a press and information officer at the U.S Embassy in Paris, Bradlee left the government to take a position as a European correspondent for Newsweek magazine.

At about the same time, Bradlee's marriage to Jean was in its final throes, succumbing to a long drifting apart. The two separated as Bradlee admitted his new love for Antoinette Pinochet Pittman, a married mother of four and friend from Bradlee's time in Washington.

His marriage to Jean ended in 1955 and in 1956 he married Tony Pinochet. In 1956 he was also forced to leave France after interviewing members of the FLN, the Algerian independence militants fighting the French for independence. He returned to Washington still as part of Newsweek in 1957.