Alex Carson
Everyone knows Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo, the husband of Lucille Ball’s Lucy on the classic sitcom I Love Lucy. Many may even know that the two marry for two decades before and during the show’s successful run. However, there are many other aspects of Desi’s life that fans remain less aware of. The relationship he is in before he meets Lucille Ball nearly kills him! Besides Desi’s marriage, there’s a tragic story of how his family forced them out of Cuba when he is young. He creates bootstraps and finds a way to support himself and his family after they seek refuge in Miami, Florida. Join Facts Verse as we explore utterly tragic details about Desi Arnaz.
Beginning of Relationship
When Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball met, Lucille was 28 years old, and Desi was 23. Desi was already a successful bandleader and had begun dabbling in acting. Meanwhile, Lucille Ball is a standard actress in B pictures, though her contractual relationship with RKO Pictures will end soon. Both Desi and Lucille are already in relationships at the time, with Lucille engaged. Desi’s partner was a woman that the man only ever referred to as Freckles. Though they’re in a serious relationship, she marries her previous husband and waiting for the divorce to finish.
Despite their previous engagements, Desi and Lucille ended up falling deeply in love with each other fairly fast. Desi leaves Freckles stock on the beach the night that he meets Lucille to spend the night with the actress. Similarly, Lucille called up her fiancé the next morning and told him that the engagement was off. Although they are in love and remain in their lives, they’ll never work out their relationship the way before. Still, that didn’t stop them from trying… for two decades!
Affairs During Marriage
Lucille Ball certainly isn’t the only person Desi sleep with behind Freckles’ back. Other notable figures that Desi engages in affairs during his relationship with Freckle are Betty Grable and Ginger Rogers. In fact, Desi pays Ginger’s expenses for a risky late-stage abortion just weeks before he and Lucille marry. Considering the messy business in Desi’s personal life when he first hooks up with Lucille, Lucille isn’t much different! Lucille came into her and Desi’s relationship already romantically involved with Henry Fonda. She reignites her relationship with Henry various times after marrying Desi to make him jealous and because she wants to.
Regardless of setbacks in their personal lives, Desi and Lucille are madly in love that they soon run away. Apparently, the decision occurs after a full night of ravenous lovemaking. Desi proclaims to Lucille that the two will marry as soon as possible. They then got in the car and drove to the courthouse, tying the knot unceremoniously without a single familial attendee. Desi and Lucille meet with the president of RKO Pictures later that day. His flight is undone due to all of the copulating that he and Lucille are doing.
Two Decades Relationship
Desi and Lucille marry for two decades and remain madly in love for the rest of their lives. But problems start immediately after their wedding. Allegedly, Desi went to see a prostitute the week after their spontaneous ceremony. One thing that people understand about Desi Arnaz is that the man comes from a different time and place. Men bring to express their machismo in a different way. Desi feels that he respects Lucille in his own personal way, he also thinks that it was okay to cheat.
Desi’s Ignorance
According to Desi, having women on the side was okay so long as he didn’t respect them. The numerous infidelities that Desi commits throughout his marriage to Lucille, hire mostly women. He feels that what he’s doing with them didn’t infringe on the sanctity of his domestic relationship with Lucille Ball. However, Lucille felt differently. The two try to reconcile for two decades before Lucille decides that there’s no way she’ll make it work. She divorces Desi in 1960 and tries to remain a business partner for a while before Desi decides to quit. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Troubling Marriage
Although Desi and Lucille have trouble throughout their marriage, the thing that keeps them together for two decades is sex! The two decide to elope after a night of wild lovemaking and fall back whenever the idea of divorce arises. One such occurrence came in 1944 when Lucille Ball became fed up with her husband’s rampant cheating and served him divorce papers. Desi understood intuitively that the gesture was a bluff, and his solution was to pick his wife up and throw her into the bed! After another night of ravenous lovemaking, Lucille decided to throw the divorce papers in the trash.
I Love Lucy
Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball marry for many years before starring in I Love Lucy. The series base on a radio show is My Favorite Husband, which Lucille gets into after being the contract with RKO Pictures. The radio show became a success, and CBS subsequently offered Lucille Ball the chance to turn the series into a television show. The network refuses Lucille’s initial insistence that Desi Arnaz plays her husband. Given that Desi was Cuban and Lucille was not, CBS felt that the television audience wasn’t ready for a mixed relationship.
Lucille Ball stuck her neck out for her husband, and the rest is history! I Love Lucy became a major success. Though Lucille was inarguably the centerpiece of the show, it’s hard to imagine the show being quite the success it was without the lovable character of Ricky Ricardo! Sadly, Desi Arnaz was never quite the faithful husband that his character was, though he certainly loved and respected his wife in his way.
Desi Arnaz Is a Cheater
Lucille Ball had hoped that having Desi by her side every day at work might inspire the man to be more faithful to her. Sadly, the opposite seemed to happen as Lucille exerted more leadership over the show’s production than he, causing Desi to further escape into his trysts with prostitutes. Desi respected this wife, but he also feared her and didn’t always feel like the man that he wanted to be when he was watching Lucille boss people around on the set of I Love Lucy. When I Love Lucy became popular, Desi’s infidelities stopped being just an issue for Lucille and started being a matter of public interest. Tabloids pried into the couple’s relationship, and numerous pieces were printed during I Love Lucy’s run suggesting Desi was cheating.
After Desi and Lucille divorced in 1960, they both remarried and stayed with their respective spouses until being separated by death. Desi died before Lucille, and Lucille’s phone call was said to be the last one the actor took before passing away. They remained great friends, both for personal reasons and for the sake of their two children.
Greatest Love
Although Lucille Ball was arguably the greatest love of Desi’s love, she wasn’t the first. As stated, Desi was with the previously mentioned Freckles when he first hooked up with Lucille, and he had indulged in a similar pattern of infidelities during his relationship with her. Freckles were technically married at the time that she and Desi were together, though she and her husband were separated. Still, that didn’t stop her husband from trying to kill Desi.
The Death of Desi Arnaz
Desi recalled before his death that there was one moment during his relationship with Freckles where the star found himself confronted by her husband. During this confrontation, the husband allegedly tried to kill him! First, the husband tried to start an even physical fight with Desi. Desi evidently physically overpowered the man fairly fast, leading to the man surrendering for the time being. However, Desi became suspicious later when the man kept trying to lure him over to an open window. The man apparently opened a window and kept trying to coax Desi over by saying that he should come to look at the view. Feeling that something wasn’t quite right, Desi called him out on the murder attempt and told him to close the window before the two of them froze. Following this, Desi claimed the man-made him a nice breakfast.
After this incident, everything was apparently settled between Desi and Freckles’ husband. It remains uncertain if Freckles ever returned to her husband after Desi later abandoned her at the beach. Desi was a man who liked to get his way, and he had the wherewithal to do it!
Although Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball both felt that the other was the love of their lives, they could sadly never make things work over the course of their two-decade marriage. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Desi Arnaz allegedly shipped Ginger Rogers out of the country to have a risky late-stage abortion performed just months before eloping with Lucille Ball, and did you know that he was almost murdered by a former lover’s husband? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
