Did You Know That John Wayne’s Wife Is Still Alive?
John Wayne wasn’t just the iconic star of countless Western films; he was also quite the ladies’ man. Though he never quite reached the level of Mickey Rooney or Elizabeth Taylor when it came to marriages, he did tie the knot three different times: first, with Josephine Saenz, who he was married to from 1933 until 1945; then, to actress Esperanza Baur, a marriage that lasted from 1946 until 1954, when he married his third and final wife, Pilar Pallete.
The third time was obviously the charm; his marriage to Pallete — performed in Hawaii on the same exact day his divorce from Baur was finalized — lasted 25 years until his death in 1979. And while Wayne has been gone for 45 years, Pallette is actually still alive! She is currently 96 years old and has remarried twice since Wayne’s death, though she’s currently single.
Who Is Pilar Pallete, John Wayne’s Widow?
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María del Pilar Pallete Alvarado, who was born in Peru, is the daughter of a Peruvian senator and was an actress herself when she first met Wayne in Peru in 1952 or early 1953. At the time, she was married to a professional game hunter, and Wayne was still married to his second wife. He was in Peru because he was scouting locations for 1960’s The Alamo. The two did not begin their relationship until they met again in 1953, when Pallete ran into Wayne in Los Angeles. Soon after, Pallete retired from acting.
During their relationship, Wayne and Pallete traveled extensively and had three children together: Aissa, John Ethan and Marisa. Wayne also had four children with first wife Josephine: Michael, Mary, Patrick and Melinda. Several of his children would eventually try their luck in Hollywood as well, but no one could quite reach the status of the Duke — although his and Pallete’s granddaughter, Jennifer Wayne, has done pretty well for herself as a member of the country music group Runaway June.
Today, Pallette lives in California and devotes herself to painting — and her subject is often Wayne. In 2023, she told Spectrum1 News, “Duke was so unique. Such a wonderful heart. Such a patient man. I just could never love anybody like I love him.”
Were they still together at the time of his death?
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This is unclear. Pallete and Wayne were technically still married when he passed, but they began living apart in 1973, when Wayne supposedly became romantically involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy; it was Stacy who was living with Wayne when he died in 1979. Stacy published a book about their romance in 1983, titled Duke: A Love Story. Pallete says she and Wayne never legally separated or divorced.
Like many Hollywood icons of the time, Wayne was also rumored to have had many affairs throughout his marriages, including one with Merle Oberon that lasted nearly a decade. His second wife, Esperanza, was so convinced he was involved with costar Gail Russell that on the night after the film Angel and the Badman wrapped and Wayne got home from the cast party, she attempted to shoot him when he walked through the door. Luckily, she didn’t succeed, and Wayne lived for two more decades, passing away at age 72 from stomach cancer.
Cowboy Christmas
November/December 2024
Saddle up for some Holiday Cowboy fun with movies, music and your fav Christmas episodes of classic Westerns.
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