Who Were Frank Sinatra’s Wives?

Remind Staff March 29, 10:00 am

February 1952: American singer and actor Frank Sinatra (1915 - 1998) and the actress Ava Gardner (1922 - 1990) attending a Hollywood party. The two were married in 1948 and later divorced in 1957. — Keystone/Getty Images

Frank Sinatra was a man of many talents … and of many loves. The legendary crooner was, like many of his fellow Rat Packers, a renowned ladies’ man who was known to squire around some of the most beautiful and talented women of his era. Ol’ Blue Eyes married four times, twice to women who were bold-faced names in their own rights.

Nancy Barbato

Sinatra met wife No. 1, Nancy Barbato, in 1934 while working as a lifeguard. They married at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City on Feb. 4, 1939. “We’d been going together for four and a half years, and we were ready to get married,” shared Nancy in Frank Sinatra: An American Legend. “Frank gave me his own sentimental little wedding present — a bag of jelly beans with a diamond watch inside. When the big day finally came, there were maybe 50 members of the family on each side of the aisle. They had all given us furniture for our new apartment.”

American singer and actor Frank Sinatra (1915 - 1998) and his first wife Nancy Barbatto at a restaurant, c. 1946.

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Nancy and Sinatra were married until 1951 and had three children: Nancy (born June 8, 1940), Frank Jr. (born Jan. 10, 1944, and died of cardiac arrest at age 72 in 2016) and Christina “Tina” (born June 20, 1948). Frank, however, was known for his philandering; a few of his more notable partners were Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner. Nancy announced their split on Valentine’s Day in 1950.

Ava Gardner

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Frank went on to marry Ava in 1951, a pairing that led to a famously tumultuous marriage. “When Nancy said, ‘My married life with Frank has become unhappy and almost unbearable,’ the @#$% really hit the fan. In the next few weeks, I received scores of letters accusing me of being a scarlet woman and worse,” Ava wrote. Because Ava was famous in her own right, this coupling predictably triggered a great boon to the Hollywood press, who ate up all things Hollywood and all things scandal. While Ava’s career skyrocketed, Frank’s hit a low point and their marriage was challenged with intense jealousy and multiple public fights. The couple’s divorce was finalized on July 5, 1957. Ava never remarried but they remained friends for life.

Mia Farrow

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After Ava, Frank was reportedly engaged to Lauren Bacall, then Juliet Prowse, and was also linked romantically to several other famous women before tying the knot for a third time with actress Mia Farrow in 1966.

This marriage would only last two years; Sinatra served her divorce papers while she was filming the iconic movie that would make her a star, Rosemary’s Baby. Farrow, who believed that their relationship ended mainly due to their age difference (she was 19 and he was over 50), told Vanity Fair in 2013 that Sinatra saw himself as a “good provider” and couldn’t understand why she would want to work. Even though she’d go on to marry one more time (plus her infamous relationship with Woody Allen), she said Sinatra was the “great love of her life.”

Barbara Marx

Singer Frank Sinatra and Barbara Sinatra pose for a portrait in 1990 in Los Angeles, California.

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Frank’s fourth and final marriage, in 1976, was to former model Barbara Marx, who he began seeing on and off while she was still married to Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the Marx Brothers. They both eventually got divorced from their partners and married each other. The fourth time was the charm: They remained married until his death in 1998. Barbara, who died in 2017, never remarried and penned the book Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank.

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