Gehry later met Berta Aguilera, a petite, ebullient Panamanian woman with a sharp wit who had come to apply for a secretarial job at his office. The two quickly fell in love, but Gehry--who had a troubled relationship with his two daughters by Anita--was terrified about beginning another family. Berta wanted children.

Gehry couldn't find a way to reconcile the various fragments of his life, so, in a bizarre twist, he asked his psychoanalyst, Milton Wexler, to intervene. Wexler, now a close friend, remembers brokering a deal. At one point, he took Berta for a long walk in Marina del Rey and told her that Gehry would be willing to have children, but only two, and that the architect was nervous about the effect a family would have on his career. She would have to raise the children. Berta agreed, and ever energetic, eventually took over the management of his office.