As I heard one journalist say, he wanted it all. He wanted championships, fame, money, image, indulgence; a lifestyle that gave him everything. If he was single this would hardly be worth batting an eyelash at. But to squeeze every last commercial value out of himself he got married. What a freakin idiot.
Kreskin, even that could be arranged. He could have talked to his bride before getting married. He could have said, look, this is purely a marriage of convenience, for the sake of public image, publicity. I am free to fool around with whoever I want, so are you. I will live my life, you live yours. That could be written into a prenuptial agreement, if she blabs and leaves him, she gets nothing, but if she keeps her mouth shut for ten years and then leaves, she gets 20 million $.
Now, maybe his current wife may not have agreed to it, but I am sure he would have been able to find some woman who would be willing to be his wife for show only. If he had done that, he could indeed have had it all. He could fool around to his hearts content and also portray the good, clean wholesome image that he wanted. He would have been able to fool people at least for a while, for the duration of he prenuptial agreement.
As you say, what he did was purely idiotic, purely dumb.