Approximately 6% of couples in the “real world” who get divorced remarry the same spouse. This is slightly more common in the strange and ever-changing world of Hollywood.
Celebrity marriages happen almost every day, but their love tends to transition from hot to cold fairly quickly. Celebrity divorces are also commonplace, but there are a few special cases where these stars end up marrying the same person twice.
A range of factors cause these splits and remarriages, from infidelity that they eventually overcome to a reignited spark after years of being apart. It can happen to almost anyone, from a talk show host to a famous sex symbol.
Like and subscribe to FactsVerse for more on the most memorable celebrity unions and divorces. Watch our video to learn about Hollywood celebrities who married the same person twice.
Lana Turner
Lana Turner grew up in foster care while her mother worked to support her. Her breakout role was in the 1937 film They Won’t Forget. That led to several other films, including The Postman Always Rings Twice and A Star is Born.
Lana became a sex symbol and had a few flings with men such as Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Renault Regan, and Tyrone Power. She was married a total of 8 times to men such as Robert Dante, Robert Eton, Fred MAx, Lex Barker, Henry Topping, and Artie Shaw.
The man she married twice was Stephen Crane. The remarriage occurred after she became pregnant with their child in 1943. Lana’s memoir Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth revealed more details about her love life. Her daughter Cheryl wrote a book in 1988 about her mother’s life called Detour: A Hollywood Story.
Lana Turner died at the age of 75 from natural causes despite having throat cancer in her final 3 years. Cheryl stayed by her mother’s side, and they became closer than they’d ever been.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor is almost as famous for her many marriages as she is for her acting talents.
She met Richard Burton on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra. She was married to her 4th husband Eddie Fisher at the time but the attraction was immediate. They began an affair despite her being friends with his wife, Debbie Reynolds.
She first married Richard on March 15, 1964. They filed for divorce 10 years later but were briefly married again in 1975.
Natalie Wood
Natalie first appeared on screen before her 5th birthday in the 1943 film Happy Land. She met Robert at the 20th Century Fox studio when she was 10, and he was 18.
The studio arranged their first date, but that was fine by Natalie because she immediately knew she would marry him. They wed a year later in 1956. He proposed by placing a pearl-and-diamond ring in her champagne glass.
The couple took a yacht around the Florida Keys for their honeymoon, even though Natalie was afraid of deep water. She rose to fame with films such as West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, and Gypsy. The glare of the spotlight and possible infidelity caused them to separate in 1961 and divorce in 1962. Natalie received regular therapy to deal with the trauma of the split, but both sides looked for other loves. Robert married actress Marion Marshall in 1963 and had a daughter named Katie with her the following year. They divorced in 1971. Natalie married producer Richard Gregson in 1969 and had a daughter named Natasha with him in 1970. They split amicably in 1972 after an alleged inappropriate conversation with his secretary.
Natalie and Robert were remarried 3 months later and seen in public again for the first time at the 1972 Academy Awards. Robert’s TV career began to soar with shows such as It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart, but Natalie was semi-retired by the time they had their second child Courtney in 1974.
Natalie Wood mysteriously died on November 29, 1981. She fell off Splendor, the family yacht, and drowned. Robert remains a person of interest in her death but asserts that he has no idea what happened.
Rodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield touched almost every area of the entertainment world. He was an actor, screenwriter, producer, and the first stand-up comedian to ever have his own website.
Rodney only ever loved 2 women. His first wife was Joyce Indig. He married her at the age of 30 in 1993. He quit show business and became an aluminum siding salesman to provide for her and their family. They had their first child Brian Roy after moving from New York to New Jersey. They divorced in 1962 due to his depression, but they were remarried in 1963 and had another child, a daughter named Melanie Roy-Friedman. In 1970, they divorced once and for all with Joyce retaining custody of both children.
The day Rodney met his second wife Joan Child was like a scene from a romance movie. He passed a Santa Monica flower shop and couldn’t look away when he passed by her. She also said it was love at first sight and that she was already his fan. He went by the shop every other day to speak with her. She was 30 years younger than him and of a different faith, but they were still meant to be. They were married in 1993, and he stayed with her until the end.
Rodney Dangerfield Death
Rodney Dangerfield died in October of 2004 due to complications from surgery He left his estate and all ownership of his intellectual properties to Joan Child. She runs a website dedicated to him and the Rodney Dangerfield Institute for the Study of Comedy in the Los Angeles City College. She made a 2-hour documentary about his life and is on the Advisory Board of the Department of Neurosurgery at UCLA where he passed away.
Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more of the dramatic love stories of famous names. Keep watching to learn about more Hollywood celebrities who married the same person twice, including staples of entertainment journalism and a handsome action star.
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters maintained a 60-year career interviewing the biggest names in Hollywood. She began as a writer and producer of the Today Show in the 1960s and became the show’s first female co-host in 1974.
Barbara first got married to former Navy lieutenant and businessman Robert Henry Katz on June 20, 1955, at the Plaza Hotel. Their marriage was annulled in 1957.
Barbara met producer and theater owner Lee Guber in 1961 after a blind date. They were married in 1963 but lived in separate homes for their first 6 months together due to their hectic lives. After 3 miscarriages, they adopted Jacqueline in 1968 in honor of Barbara’s disabled sister. The couple temporarily separated in 1972 and officially divorced in 1976.
Barbara married Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television, in 1981. They divorced in 1984 and were remarried in 1986 until they divorced again in 1992.
Barbara claimed in a 2014 ABC special about her life that she wasn’t good at marriage and felt her career was too important. She has zero regrets about adopting her daughter and feels it was one of the best things she ever did, but she does regret not spending more time with her instead of working to grow her career. She also regrets not having more children.
Barbara Walters is now 90 years old and retired from journalism, but The View, a show she created in 1997, continues to deliver the latest entertainment news. There are rumors that she has dementia, but her former co-star Whoopie Golberg denies these claims.
Larry King
Larry King admits that no one lived together when he grew up without being married. He claims that he married every woman he loved but that the ones he loved at 20 aren’t the same ones he loved at 30.
Larry’s first marriage was to his high school sweetheart Freda Miller in 1952. He was only 18 at the time, and the marriage was annulled in 1953 because her parents disapproved of the union.
Larry’s second and shortest marriage was to Annette Kaye, whom he wed in 1961. They were only together for a year but had a son named Larry Jr. He didn’t know about his famous father until his mother told him in 1994 when she was on her deathbed after a long battle with lung cancer.
Larry married Alene Akins, a former Playboy Bunny, in 1961. He adopted her son Andy and had a daughter named Chaia with her. They divorced in 1963.
Larry met Mickey Sutphin while working at a radio station in Miami. They were married in 1963 and had a daughter named Kelly. They divorced in 1967, and their daughter was allegedly adopted by her 2nd husband.
Larry married Alene again in 1967 but divorced her again in 1972. She died in 2017, and he sent out a tweet that she was a grand lady.
Larry married math teacher and production assistant Sharon Lepore in 1976. Their relationship was private but rocky, and they divorced in 1983.
Larry married businesswoman Julie Alexander in 1989 less than a year after meeting her. Despite the passion, they were separated in 1990 and divorced in 2010 after she began to suspect he was cheating on her.
Larry’s Final Marriage
Larry’s final marriage was to Shawn Southwick. Larry and Shawn were married in his hospital room when he went for surgery to unclog a blood vessel in 1997. They had 2 sons, Chance and Cannon. They had a 26-year-age difference and there were rumors of infidelity. She was crushed when they divorced in 2019, but they were reportedly still married at the time of his death.
Larry King died at the age of 87, but his impact on the world of talk television will be felt forever.
Jean-Claude Van Dame
Jean-Claude Van Dame is a famous actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. He also had a body that could attract almost any woman, so it’s less than surprising that he was married several times.
Jean-Claude’s first marriage was to Darcy LaPier from 1994-1997.
He met Gladys Portugues, a bodybuilder and Ms. Oypmia contestant, at a photoshoot and they were married in 1987 and had 2 children. They divorced in 1992
Jean-Claude married Darcy LaPier in 1994. The couple separated a year later after he cheated on her with Kylie Minogue while she was pregnant with his child.
Jean-Claude tried marriage a few other times after that. He was married to Cynthia Derdian from 1985-1986 and Maria Rodrigues from 1980-1984. He and Gladys reconnected and remarried in 1999 in Belgium. Rumors spread that they wanted to get divorced again in 2015. She filed the papers but changed her mind.
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