structural:expansion, quality:correction, information:highlighting, structural:summarization
Research work

Masters and Johnson met in 1957 when William Masters hired Virginia Johnson as a research assistant to undertake a comprehensive study of human sexuality. According to author Thomas Maier, as part of their clinical research Masters and Johnson observed paid volunteers engaging in sexual activity while hooked to wires in their lab. At Masters's request, Masters and Johnson engaged in intercourse as subjects of their own study and eventually became lovers. Maier stated that Masters spent more time in the lab with Johnson than he did with his wife Libby and their children, and also spent summer vacations together with Johnson. By the time Masters divorced his first wife in 1971, associates believed that he and Johnson essentially lived together and worked and traveled together seven days a week. Masters and Johnson married in 1971 but then later divorced on March 18, 1993, in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County; they nonetheless continued to work together professionally.