10 Celebrities Who Have Been Married Six and More Times
Celebrity relationships are a cultural phenomenon that intrigue those who like to keep up with pop culture. Of course, the focus is usually on the dramatic celeb relationships that make the headlines, but have you ever wondered about those celebrities that keep getting married over and over?
Below we offer a few fun trivia facts about those with six marriages and more. We start with six marriages and end with nine. Wonder who #9 is?
10. Billy Bob Thorton
Married 6 Times
Bob Thorton is an American actor and director known for such films as Armageddon (1998), Monster’s Ball (2001), and Bad Santa (2003). Though he’s never won an Oscar for his acting (he’s been nominated twice), he did pick one up for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Sling Blade (1996).
Along with his long list of film credits, he has quite the list of previous marriages! Thorton has been married six times, most notably to actress Angelina Jolie. The couple were married from 2000-03 and were quite the public spectacle. They supposedly carried vials of each other’s blood around their necks!
But who were the other ladies that Billy Bob married? He was married to Melissa Gatlin from 1978-80, and they have a daughter named Amanda. In addition, he was married to actress Toni Lawrence from 1986-88, actress Cynda Williams from 1990-92, and model Pietra Cherniak from 1993-97.
After his public breakup with Jolie in 2003, Thorton settled down with makeup artist Connie Angland. The pair have been together since 2003 and secretly got married in 2014.
9. Tony Curtis
Married 6 Times
Curtis was an American actor known for such films as Some Like It Hot (1959), Spartacus (1960), and The Boston Strangler (1968). He is the father of a notable actress and original “scream queen,” Jamie Lee Curtis.
Curtis was married six times. His most famous marriage was his first one to actress Janet Leigh, known for her role in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). They were married from 1951-62. He was then married to Christine Kaufmann from 1963-68, Leslie Allen from 1968-82, Andrea Savio from 1984-92, and Lisa Deutsch from 1993-94.
His final marriage was to Jill Vandenberg in 1998. They were married until he died in 2010.
8. Rue McClanahan
Married 7 Times
Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles as Vivian in the television show Maude (1972-78) and Blanche in The Golden Girls (1985-92).
Though she led a low-profile personal life, McClanahan was married seven times! First to Tom Bish (from 1958-59), then to Norman Hartweg (from 1959-61), then to Peter DeMaio (from 1964-71), then to Gus Fisher (from 1976-79), and Tom Keel (from 1984-85).
She married for the final time in 1997 to Morrow Wilson. The pair stayed together until she died in 2010.
7. Jerry Lee Lewis
Married 7 Times
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American singer and pianist. He is known for being one of the first big names in rock’n’roll music, famous for his upbeat and wild piano playing and hits such as Great Balls of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On. He is also renowned for being a member of Sun Records’ Million Dollar Quartet, alongside Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley.
Lewis has married a total of seven times. His first two marriages happened when he was still a teenager: at 16, he married Dorothy Barton (from 1952-53), then the following year, he married Jane Mitchum (from 1953-57).
Controversy struck in 1957 when Lewis married his third wife, 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown (who also happened to be his first cousin once removed). The two remained married, despite public scrutiny, until 1970, when Brown filed for divorce, citing physical and mental abuse as the reasoning.
Lewis was then married to Jaren Pate (from 1971-82), after which he had a short-lived marriage to Shawn Stephens in 1983. His sixth marriage was to Kerrie McCarver (from 1984-2005), his longest marriage date.
He married Judith Brown, his seventh wife, in 2012. The pair are still together.
6. Richard Pryor
Married 7 Times
Richard Pryor was an American comedian known for his bold and controversial humor. His accolades include being the first African-American person to host Saturday Night Live in its first season and ranking #1 on Rolling Stone’s list of Top 50 Comics.
Pryor was married seven times to five different women. His first marriage was to Patricia Price from 1960-61, and his second to Shelley Bonus from 1967-69. Pryor married model Deborah McGuire in 1977, but the marriage was short-lived.
He split his last two marriages between two women. From 1981-82, he was married to actress Jennifer Lee, whom he then remarried in 2001. He married actress Flynn Belaine from 1986-87 and from 1990-91.
Pryor and Lee remained married until he died in 2005.
5. Lana Turner
Married 8 Times
Lana Turner was an American actress known for her performances in Imitation of Life (1959), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), and Peyton Place (1957) – the latter of which scored her an Oscar nomination.
The actress was married eight times (but only to seven different men)! Her first was a short-lived marriage to jazz musician Artie Shaw in 1940. Turner then married actor Steve Crane in 1942. The marriage was annulled in 1943, but then she remarried Crane in the same year.
Turner was married five more times in her life. She was married to socialite Bob Topping from 1948-52, then actor Lex Barker from 1953-57, then department store heir Fred May from 1960-62, and then producer Robert Eaton from 1965-69. Her last marriage was to a hypnotist named Ronald Pellar from 1969-72.
Lana Turner died in 1995 due to complications from throat cancer.
4. Elizabeth Taylor
Married 8 Times
Elizabeth “Liz” Taylor was a British American actress best known for her work in Butterfield 8 (1960), Cleopatra (1963), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). She is remembered as being one of classic Hollywood’s greatest actresses of all time.
However, she is also known for her very public personal life, including her eight marriages to seven different men. Her most publicized romantic relationship was with fellow actor Richard Burton, whom she worked with on 11 other movies! The two were married twice, from 1964-74 and 1975-76.
But who are the other fellows Liz married? Her first marriage was to hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr from 1950-51. Then she was married to Michael Wilding from 1952-57. Taylor then married producer Mike Todd in 1957, but sadly their marriage ended when Todd died in a plane crash the following year. She then married musician Eddie Fisher in 1959 but divorced him in 1964.
Following her much-publicized marriages to Fisher and Burton, Taylor was married to politician John Warner from 1976-82. Her last marriage was to construction worker Larry Fortensky from 1991-1996.
Taylor remained unmarried until she died in 2011.
3. Mickey Rooney
Married 8 Times
Mickey Rooney was an American actor known for his roles in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). As a child actor, he came to fame starring in many movies alongside fellow MGM child star Judy Garland. His acting career spanned nine decades!
Along with his impressive Hollywood resume, Rooney also has an impressive list of marriages, with eight in total. His first marriage was to Hollywood starlet Ava Gardner from 1942-43. Next, he married singer Betty Phillips from 1944-49, then actress Martha Vickers from 1949-51. Rooney’s fourth and fifth marriages were to model Elaine Devry (1952-58) and beauty queen Barbara Thomason (1958-66). He then had a short-lived marriage to Marge Lane from 1966-67, and then Carolyn Hockett from (1969-75).
Rooney married his final wife, Jan Chamberlain, in 1978, to whom he remained married until he died in 2014.
2. Larry King
Married 8 Times
Larry King is an American talk show host and radio personality who has been in the broadcasting business for more than 60 years. He has been inducted into the National Radio and Broadcasting Halls of Fame and interviewed every sitting president, from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama!
King has been married a total of eight times to seven different women. First, he was married to his high school sweetheart Freda Miller from 1952-53. He then briefly married Annette Kaye in 1961. After, he married model Alene Akins in 1961, and the marriage lasted until 1963, but then the two remarried in 1967 and divorced again in 1972.
Mary Francis Stuphin became his fourth wife from 1963 to 1967. After his second marriage to Akins, King married Sharon Lepore in 1976 until 1983. In 1989, he married Julie Alexander (after supposedly proposing to her on their first date). The two were married until 1992. King’s final and longest marriage was to actress Shawn Southwick. They were married from 1997 until 2019, when they separated.
King was still working to finalize the divorce from Southwick when he died in January 2021.
1. Zsa Zsa Gabor
Married 9 Times
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian American actress known for her roles in Moulin Rouge (1952) and Death of a Scoundrel (1956). Along with being a famous actress, she was well known for her many, many marriages!
Gabor’s first marriage was to politician Burhan Belge from 1935-41. She then married hotel mogul Conrad Hilton Sr. in 1942 and divorced him in 1947. Her third marriage was to actor George Sanders from 1949-54. After that, she married Herbert Hutner from 1962-66 and Joshua Cosden Jr. from 1966-67. Her sixth marriage was to designer Jack Ryan from 1975-76, and her seventh to Mike O’Hara from 1976-83.
Gabor married actor Felipe de Alba in 1983, but the marriage supposedly only lasted one day. Her ninth and final marriage was to businessman Frederic Prinz von Anhalt. They married in 1986 and remained so until Gabor died in 2016.
These Celebrities Made It Through
These celebrities married many times and far beyond the norm, and they seem to have gotten through it.
Are you considering divorcing your spouse and moving on? Do you find it challenging, or is it a mutual decision between you both?
Whether it’s your first divorce or another, if you need help during this tough time, please contact the professional divorce attorneys at Dalena & Bosch. We have guided and helped many like you to achieve what works and is best. Contact us as we look forward to speaking with you.