Frank Sinatra's 4 Marriages: A Look at the Iconic Singer's Relationships from Nancy Barbato to Barbara Marx

10/14/2024 09:30 AM

Frank Sinatra met his four wives in unexpected ways, including through tennis

Frank Sinatra was married four times and remained close friends with each of his wives throughout his life.

The iconic singer met his first wife, Nancy Barbato Sinatra, when he was 19 and wed her five years later in 1939. After welcoming three children together, Sinatra and Nancy divorced a few days before he married his second wife, actress Ava Gardner, in 1951.

After splitting with Gardner in 1953, Sinatra then married actress Mia Farrow in 1966 — but their marriage lasted only two years. His fourth marriage to Barbara Marx — which began in 1976 — was his last, as the two were together until he died in 1998.

Sinatra was known to have relationships outside of his marriages, which caused rifts with his spouses. Still, he left a memorable impression after their time together. According to The New York Times, the 1998 book Why Sinatra Matters revealed that later in life, Nancy was asked why she had never remarried, and she succinctly answered, "After Sinatra?"

Here's everything to know about Frank Sinatra's four wives: Nancy Barbato Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx Sinatra.

Nancy Barbato Sinatra

Nancy Sinatra was born Nancy Rose Barbato in Jersey City, N.J., in 1917. Her hardworking Italian-American family was helmed by her father, who worked as a plasterer, per The New York Times.

Nancy and Sinatra started their relationship well before Sinatra's career took off when she was 17 and he was 19. The two met in Long Branch, N.J., a seaside town where both families spent their summers. They married on Feb. 4, 1939, during the height of the Great Depression — and Nancy returned to working as a secretary and Sinatra as a singing waiter.

After their wedding, the two quickly welcomed three kids together: Their first child, daughter Nancy Sandra Sinatra, was born on  June 8, 1940. Nancy and Sinatra then welcomed their son, Francis Wayne Sinatra Jr., on Jan. 10, 1944. The couple completed their family with the birth of their daughter Christina "Tina" Sinatra on June 20, 1948.

Related: Frank Sinatra's 3 Children: All About Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina

Throughout her marriage to Sinatra, Nancy was a doting wife, cooking for the family and sewing their own clothes, per The New York Times. While she also accompanied him on tour, Nancy heard rumors about her husband's infidelity and stood her ground for a time.

During his marriage to Nancy, Sinatra met actress Ava Gardner at MGM Studios and began dating her in 1947. Though Nancy knew of the affair, she didn't want to divorce the "My Way" vocalist. "I have something too fine and precious to give up," she said in a rare interview in 1950, per The New York Times.

By 1951, though, Nancy agreed to a divorce, and Sinatra married Gardner within a few days of the finalization.

After Sinatra and Nancy split, she got custody of the children and took the primary role in raising them. Despite this, Sinatra's kids have said he remained a large part of their lives and the three pursued careers in the entertainment business, singing and acting like him.

Sinatra and Nancy remained close until his death, with her serving as his confidante and close friend, TIME reported. The two even briefly rekindled their romance in the 1970s, per Vanity Fair.

Nancy died at age 101 on July 13, 2018, and she never remarried. Three years earlier, her family detailed the enduring love she and Sinatra had. (He died at 82 from a heart attack on May 14, 1998.)

"I know he never stopped loving her. And I know she never stopped loving him," granddaughter A.J. Lambert wrote in a 2015 story for Vanity Fair. "'Thank God I never re-married,' [Nancy] said. I was never even close. I would have had to be in love, and I would never fall in love again.' "

Ava Gardner

Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on Dec. 24, 1922, and raised in North Carolina and Virginia to a working-class family. In 1939, she visited her sister in New York City, where she was put in touch with an MGM scout and was whisked away to Hollywood to star in movies at 18 years old.

Sinatra and Gardner first met in 1943 while she was at a club with her then-husband, fellow actor Mickey Rooney, according to the 2017 biography Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies. As time passed, Sinatra and Gardner saw each other occasionally, but reconnected in the late 1940s when they were both on set at MGM — and Sinatra was still married to his first wife and mother of his three children, Nancy.

"I looked at her and said, 'Jesus, you got prettier since last time I saw ya,'" Sinatra said, according to the biography. "This was not the young girl from Carolina at the studio. This was a woman who was glorious."

By this point, Gardner's career was taking off, and MGM studio executive Louis B. Mayer warned Gardner about getting involved with Sinatra, a married man — and several years her senior (Sinatra was 33 at the time and Gardner was 26). They disregarded the warnings and started seeing each other anyway.

Their affair lasted a few years, as Sinatra's wife Nancy did not want to grant the "Fly Me To the Moon" singer a divorce. She eventually relented, and 72 hours after the divorce was finalized, Sinatra married Gardner on Nov. 7, 1951.

He and the actress ended up in a tumultuous relationship, as the two had multiple affairs throughout their marriage. Gardner also revealed that she had two abortions during this time, per Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies. She reportedly wanted to have a family but believed Sinatra could not provide her and their future children with the stability they needed.

In addition to affairs, Sinatra and Gardner's careers made their union difficult. After he struggled to sell records and fill concert halls, MGM canceled his movie contract and he fell into financial hard times. Meanwhile, Gardner was hitting her peak. Shortly after exchanging vows, Sinatra and Gardner announced their divorce in 1953, which was finalized in 1957.

She never married again, and they stayed good friends until Gardner died at age 67 of pneumonia on Jan. 25, 1990.

Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow was born on Feb. 9, 1945, in Los Angeles, Calif., to Hollywood notables director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan. She was one of seven children and moved to New York after her father's death in 1963.

The following year, Farrow's acting career took off when she earned her breakout role in the TV drama Peyton Place. Around the same time, she met Sinatra on the 20th Century Fox lot while she was shooting the soap opera and Sinatra was filming Von Ryan's Express.

Though Farrow was only 19 and Sinatra was nearly 50, the two fell in love. "I told my mother right away I was seeing Frank. She approved," she told DuJour Magazine.

The actors secretly dated for a year before making their first appearance in public together, Farrow wrote in a 2023 Instagram post, sharing a throwback photo of the "western theme" benefit gala they attended in 1965.

A few days after announcing their engagement, Sinatra and Farrow married on July 19, 1966. They later had a bigger celebration with their family and friends.

"He looked very handsome and he was beaming. I can't remember saying the actual vows. I felt dazed," Farrow captioned Instagram photos from their wedding day. "I really don't have words for how deeply happy we were. ... I loved him with all my heart ♥️."

But two years after their wedding, in 1968, Sinatra served Farrow with divorce papers while she was on set filming Rosemary's Baby. Looking back, Farrow shared that their relationship ended mainly due to their age difference.

"I was less mature than any other 19-year-old I've ever known. Poor Frank, saddled with such a child," she told The Guardian in 2007. "I would be falling asleep at the table in Las Vegas, trying to talk to people about their cats. He was very patient with me."

Farrow later revealed that she and Sinatra disagreed about her career — another reason for their split. She told Vanity Fair in 2013 that Sinatra saw himself as a "good provider" and couldn't understand why she would want to work. "That's the way men thought, and you felt pretty guilty wanting something for yourself," The Great Gatsby star told the outlet.

Related: Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra's Relationship: A Look Back

Farrow went on to marry twice more and welcomed 14 children. Despite their formal split, Sinatra and Farrow were on good terms up until he died in 1998, per Vanity Fair. In 2013, Farrow told the outlet that they "never really split up" and agreed that Sinatra was the great love of her life.

More recently, in December 2023, on what would have been Sinatra's 107th birthday, Farrow posted a photo on Instagram of the singer with a heartfelt caption.

"This was the first photo I took with the Rolleiflex camera he bought for us. He was teaching me how to use it," she penned, referencing her nickname for Sinatra, Charlie Brown. "Happy Heavenly Birthday C.B. I will always love you ♥️."

Barbara Marx Sinatra

Born Barbara Blakely (sometimes spelled Blakeley) on March 10, 1927, in Missouri, Sinatra's fourth and final wife didn't meet the singer until much later in life, per The New York Times.

Barbara started a career in modeling when she was 18 years old, attending professional modeling school in California. She soon moved to New York — where she signed with Ford Modeling Agency (now Ford Models) and worked for Vogue — with her first husband, aspiring singer Bob Oliver, per The Hollywood Reporter.

After giving birth to their son, Robert, Barbara and Oliver split, and she moved to Las Vegas to become a showgirl. There, she met her second husband, Zeppo Marx — formerly a Marx Brothers comedy troupe member who had since become a talent agent — and the two married in 1959.

Barbara was first introduced to Sinatra while she was living with Marx. At the time, Sinatra was still wed to his second wife, Ava Gardner, and the two lived next door to Barbara and Marx in Rancho Mirage, Calif. One day, Gardner enlisted Barbara to be her doubles partner — and Sinatra and Barbara began seeing each other without their partners' knowledge, Barbara wrote in her 2011 memoir, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank.

Their relationship, though, took time to fully pan out. Sinatra went on to marry his third wife, Mia Farrow, and divorced her in 1968 — and Barbara did not divorce Marx until 1973. Eventually, Sinatra and Barbara tied the knot on July 11, 1976 — after Sinatra proposed with a 20.6-carat diamond ring in a glass of champagne, per Sotheby's listing of the ring.

The wedding was held at Sunnylands, a desert estate in Rancho Mirage — just down the street from Sinatra's home, per The New York Times. The wedding was attended by over 130 guests, including Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan, Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Peck.

"The year I married Frank Sinatra was a very good year. ... It had taken us five years of flirting and courting to finally say 'I do.' It probably took another year before I grew accustomed to the idea that I now carried his iconic name," Barbara wrote in her 2011 memoir, per The Hollywood Reporter. "Even to say 'Mrs. Sinatra' out loud felt like bragging."

Together with Sinatra, Barbara became an activist and philanthropist. In 1986, the two founded the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center in Rancho Mirage, which offers support to victims of abuse, per The New York Times. The couple also founded The Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament to raise money for the center, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Because they married later in life — Sinatra was 60 and Barbara 49 — the two lived a quiet life outside of fundraising and philanthropy. They owned Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, played tennis and golf, and Sinatra completed crosswords in ink every day, per Sotheby's. The pair even renewed their vows on their 20th wedding anniversary in 1996.

They were married until Sinatra's death in 1998, and Barbara died at 90 years old of natural causes on July 25, 2017. In her memoir, Barbara wrote that she was the "luckiest woman in the world" to be Sinatra's wife, per USA Today.

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