Ava Gardner's Dating History: A Look Back at the Hollywood Icon's Marriages and Romances

Ava Gardner was known for being glamorous and beautiful, but also for having a complicated life at best.

She was married and divorced twice before the age of 25, first to movie star Mickey Rooney and then to actor Artie Shaw. She was also married to Frank Sinatra and was later linked to Ernest Hemingway.

Although most of her relationships were tumultuous, she laid it all bare in her autobiography, Ava: My storywhich was published after her death in 1990. In it she revealed abuse from past partners and other brave secrets.

From her first marriage to Mickey Rooney to her romance with Frank Sinatra, here’s a look back at Ava Gardner’s ex-husbands, boyfriends and romances.

Mickey Rooney

Ava Gardener and Mickey Rooney. Bettmann

Gardner and Rooney met in 1941, when he was one of the most popular actors in Hollywood and she was just starting out.

Despite objections from their joint studio, MGM, the two married in 1942 when Gardner was just 19 years old.

The couple divorced quite quickly – their separation was finalized 9 months after they were married.

Artie Shaw

Ava Gardner (1922 – 1990) and American jazz musician and bandleader Artie Shaw pose together the day after their wedding on October 18, 1945. Eric Carpenter/Hulton Archive/Getty

Gardner married her second husband in 1945. Ultimately, Shaw left Gardner after the two had been married for about a year.

She and ghostwriter Peter Evans discussed the relationship at length while compiling her autobiography, she says vanity fair.

Garder told Evans: “We got married in ’45, October 17th. He left me a week after our first anniversary. The bastard broke my heart.”

Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra and his bride Ava Gardner pose for a wedding picture after their wedding last night in Germantown, PA. Bettmann

Sinatra and Gardner began their love affair in 1951 amid a storm of controversy.

Sinatra was still married to his wife, Nancy Sinatra, when he first saw Gardner on the set at MGM in the late 1940s. They then began spending time together in 1948, despite studio head Louis B. Mayer’s warning to Gardner not to date a married man.

Sinatra was in no hurry to divorce his wife, and he and Gardner continued their stormy relationship. They eventually married 72 hours after Sinatra’s divorce was finalized in 1951, but their marriage ended in 1953.

Gardner later revealed that she had two miscarriages while married to Sinatra. She got pregnant for the first time while they were in Nigeria for her movie Mogambo.

Despite their divorce in 1957, the two remained friends until her death in 1990.

Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner appear on the CBS program “LUX RADIO THEATER”, November 18, 1947 in Los Angeles, California. CBS

Gardner began a brief affair with costar MacMurray while still married to Sinatra, but things ended quickly after she found out her boyfriend had a sick wife.

Her assistant and housekeeper, Mearene Jordan, said in Gardner’s autobiography: “She didn’t object to secret adultery, but when a guy had twos with a sick woman, she objected—strongly.”

Luis Miguel Domingo

Ava Gardner appears with bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguino at the Copagarage nightclub in New York. Bettmann

Gardner and Dominguín met while the actress was technically still married to Sinatra, but before that split was finalized.

The Spanish bullfighter was previously engaged to the 18-year-old daughter of the Duke of Pinohermos, but by 1954 he was in a relationship with Gardner, whom he described as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

However, their relationship was short-lived, and in 1955 he married the Italian actress Lucia Bose.

George C. Scott

Ava Gardner walking down a Roman street with actor George C. Scott. Bettmann

Gardner and Scott met in 1964 on a film set.

In her autobiography, Gardner stated that the relationship was abusive, although Scott’s spokesperson later commented, “Mr. Scott has not had the opportunity to read the book and therefore has no comment on its content.”

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, Mary Welsh Hemingway and Ava Gardner sit nearby and talk, mid to late 1950s. Picture Parade/Getty

The relationship between Gardner and Hemingway has never been clearly defined. The two met in 1954, while Gardner was still in a relationship with Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín.

Gardner, who was still married to Sinatra at the time, faced a lot of public scrutiny, and Hemingway reportedly offered her a home to hide in.

Gardner and Hemingway spent a lot of time together at his home in Havana, Cuba.

Gardner’s assistant, Mearene Jordan, later described the home in her autobiography, Living with Miss Gwriting, “There were fifteen acres of wilderness. … Yet there was room for a pool, a vegetable garden, vines, and more varieties of mangoes than anywhere else in Cuba. There were about five million cats, as far as I could see, along with dogs , chickens and cows that gave the place a friendly atmosphere.”

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Source: HIS Education