On August 10, 1933, at the age of 18, Kiesler married Mandl, then 33. The son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Mandl insisted that she convert to Catholicism before their wedding in Vienna Karlskirche. In her autobiography "Ecstasy and Me", Mandl is described as an extremely controlling husband. He strongly objected to her having been filmed in the simulated orgasm scene in "Ecstasy" and prevented her from pursuing her acting career. She claimed she was kept a virtual prisoner in their castle home, , in the remote Waldviertel, near the Czech border.