Keep reading for a complete guide to Sinatra's wives—from his high school sweetheart and Hollywood mistress—to the May-December romance and the one he'd call his wife to the end.
Sinatra had four wives: Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx.
Who were Frank Sinatra’s wives?
Frank Sinatra, Nancy Barbato and their children (Nancy, Tina, Frank Jr.)Photo by Hulton Archive on Getty Images
Nancy Barbato (married 1939–1951)
As Sinatra’s fame grew, so did the strain on his marriage. His infidelities—most notoriously his affair with Hollywood sensation Ava Gardner—became tabloid fodder. Still, for years, Nancy refused to grant her philandering husband a divorce. “I have something too fine and precious to give up,” she told The New York Times in 1950. A year later, her marriage to Sinatra came to an end, and just weeks after that, he wed Gardner.
Famously, she never remarried. According to Tony Oppedisano—a former member of Sinatra's management team who wrote a memoir titled Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours—the longtime associate once asked Nancy why she never took another husband.
Related: Nancy Sinatra Reminisces on ‘Bond’ With Brother in ‘Heavenly Birthday’ Tribute
Sinatra and Ava GardnerPhoto by Silver Screen Collection on Getty Images
Ava Gardner (married 1951–1957, but separated as of 1953)
The two first crossed paths in 1949, when Gardner was already a major MGM star and Sinatra was facing a major career slump. But despite being at such different points in their professional lives—and despite Sinatra being, uh, married—he and Gardner carried on a highly-publicized affair.
In Lee Server's 2006 biography of Gardner, a former friend of the couple, Sheila Sim, recalled going out with them in London alongside her husband, Richard Attenborough. "It was a terrific love affair, but it was very volatile," Sim recalled in the book (via The Telegraph).
Ironically, it was during the collapse of their marriage that Sinatra’s career rebounded. His Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity in 1953 marked a major comeback, but the professional revival did little to heal his marriage. That same year, he and Gardner separated; their divorce was finalized in 1957.
Even so, Sinatra and Gardner remained close friends until her death from pneumonia in 1990, at the age of 67.
Sinatra and Mia Farrow on their wedding day in Las VegasPhoto by Keystone on Getty Images
Mia Farrow (Married 1966–1968)
Their union was short-lived and saddled by clashes over Farrow’s ambition, which didn’t suit Sinatra’s more traditional views of marriage. “In terms of what Frank would say, I shouldn’t have done anymovies,’ Farrow told Vanity Fair in 2013. “He’s on the record saying, ‘I’m a pretty good provider. I can’t see why a woman would want to do anything else.’ That’s the way men thought, and you felt pretty guilty wanting something for yourself.”
Still, the age-gap couple remained friends and even continued to see each other romantically on occasion, including during Farrow’s relationship with Woody Allen, for years. Some people believe her son with Allen, Ronan Farrow, is actually Sinatra’s (“Possibly,” she told Vanity Fair), but that’s never been confirmed through a paternity test.
Related: Mia Farrow Shares Touching Tribute to Late Ex-Husband Frank Sinatra
Barbara Marx and Sinatra were married up until his death in 1998.Photo by Joan Adlen Photography on Getty Images
Barbara Marx (Married 1976–1998)
The pair had actually met years before they tied the knot, when Barbara was married to Zeppo Marx and Sinatra was still with Ava Gardner. The couples were neighbors in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and according to Barbara’s 2011 memoir, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank, a casual day on the tennis court—when Gardner asked Barbara to be her doubles partner—set the stage for her affair with Sinatra.
Despite standing the test of time, their marriage wasn’t without tension, particularly with Sinatra’s daughters, Nancy and Tina.
And in her 2000 book, My Father’s Daughter, Tina revealed that she learned of her father’s death from a doctor, via phone. “Barbara could have called us – she could have called!” she wrote. “But she did not call.”
Related: Frank Sinatra’s Resurfaced Dressing Room Rider Has Commenters Raising Their Eyebrows
Was Frank Sinatra faithful to his wives?
Are you kidding? Sinatra was unfaithful in all of his marriages. In her memoir Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank, his fourth and final wife, Barbara, wrote that “women would always be part of the deal with Frank.”
Up Next: Frank Sinatra Makes History with First No. 1 Song Since 1967
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