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

Frank Sinatra was a larger-than-life figure in the world of entertainment, but two of his favorite gigs were that of “dad” and “grandpa.”

“I love being a father, and a grandfather,” he told his older daughter, Nancy Sinatra, in a 1985 interview for Hour magazine.

Nancy was one of three kids the nine-time Grammy winner had with his first wife, Nancy Barbato Sinatra. The pair also shared son Francis Wayne Sinatra (better known as Frank Jr.) and daughter Tina Sinatra. While the children were primarily raised by Nancy Sr. after the couple’s split in 1951, Sinatra was steadfast in his love for them.

“I was on the road all the time and away most of the time, and then right on top of that kind of lifestyle came the divorce of your mother, so that wasn’t very good of being a father,” he told his daughter Nancy in their interview. “But, on the other hand, I’ve always loved you three kids, constantly, 24 hours a day, worried about you all the time, thought about you.”

As Sinatra’s son, Frank Jr., would later explain to The Guardian, “He was a good father as much as it was within his power.”

Frank Sinatra with Nancy Barbato and their children Nancy, Tina, and Frank Jr. circa 1950.

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Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82. As his younger daughter Tina told PEOPLE in 2015: “Dad loved life.”

Here is everything to know about Frank Sinatra’s three children, Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina.

Nancy Sandra Sinatra, 83

Nancy Sinatra attends the press night of “Sinatra At The London Palladium” on July 20, 2015 in London, England.

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Frank Sinatra’s oldest child, Nancy Sandra Sinatra, was born to the singer and his wife, on June 8, 1940.

Sinatra’s career took off when Nancy, the muse for the singer’s track “Nancy (with the Laughing Face),” was around 4 years old — his newfound success kept the crooner on the road.

“My mother said I used to cry when I heard his voice on the radio, because he wasn’t there, he was coming from this box,” Nancy told the Vancouver Sun in 2015. “My dad was always there, even though he wasn’t living in our house. He was always on the phone, always just a car ride away.”

The family of five was split up in 1951, however, with Sinatra and Nancy Sr. divorcing after it became public that Sinatra was having an affair with actress Ava Gardner.

As she was growing up, Nancy became an integral part of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and its annual song banquets. She also took care not to get in too much trouble.

“Especially in my position: the ‘daughter of,’ ” she told The Irish Times in 2021. “You have to work harder so that you’re not going to shame your family. Even as a teenager, I felt I had to be more careful about my behavior … I had to keep the name out of the newspapers.”

Nancy Barbato, Frank Sinatra, and Nancy Sinatra at Grand Central Station in New York City.

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Nancy’s road to stardom began at age 17, when she made her debut on her father’s program, The Frank Sinatra Show. “His producers thought it would be a cute idea,” she said. Alongside her budding career, Nancy embarked upon a romance with actor and singer Tommy Sands, whom she married on Sept. 11, 1960.

For much of their five-year marriage, Nancy’s focus on music was minimized. “I made the stumbling block,” she told the Irish Times. Though she was signed to her dad’s record label, Reprise, in 1961, her music wasn’t taking off the way that she had hoped. “I was singing in keys that were too high. I termed it Nancy Nice Lady,” she explained to the outlet. “It just wasn’t me.”

In 1965, she divorced Sands and focused more on her career. Nancy also received encouragement from her father, who was also her costar in Marriage on the Rocks that same year.

“I hadn’t the faintest idea, but he encouraged me to follow my musical instincts,” Nancy told The Guardian in 2008. “He said to me — wise words — ’Just stay away from what I do. You’ll be up for comparisons, and it’ll be ridiculous.’ ”

The result was the 1965 smash hit “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, ” which was inspired by Sinatra’s 1963 Western 4 for Texas, and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also earned Nancy two Grammy nominations the following year. Having successfully broken into the music industry, Nancy was tapped to sing the theme song for the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, and got her own special on NBC called Movin’ With Nancy.

Frank Sinatra and daughter Nancy at one of their rehearsals for the “Frank Sinatra Show” on February 11, 1958..

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That same year, Nancy and her father collaborated on a track called “Somethin’ Stupid,” which they first released as a single in March. The track would go on to win a Grammy nomination, and the pair became the only father/daughter duo in history to ever have a No. 1 hit in the United States.

Nancy’s star grew even brighter in 1968 when she costarred alongside Elvis Presley in the musical movie Speedway and released a collaborative album, Nancy & Lee, with her co-writer, Lee Hazlewood.

When she was 30 years old, Nancy opened herself up to love once more, this time with dancer Hugh Lambert. The pair wed on Dec. 12, 1970 — Sinatra’s 55th birthday — and four years later, on May 22, they welcomed their first child, Angela Jennifer (AJ) Lambert.

The couple had one more child together, Amanda Lambert, on March 17, 1976, before Hugh passed away in 1985 of cancer. In the wake of her grief, the recording artist kept herself busy, releasing a book about her dad’s life, titled Frank Sinatra: My Father — a project that she had been planning since the age of 25.

Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy at the movie premiere of ‘Not As A Stranger’.

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Nancy also returned to her music, making a comeback with 1995’s One More Time and posing for Playboy just one month shy of her 55th birthday. In 1998, tragedy struck again with the passing of her father.

Nancy told the Vancouver Sun that it was difficult to grieve her father because his photos and memories were everywhere. “I know my brother and sister feel the same. The man was probably one of the most photographed people who ever lived,” she said. “You hear his music everywhere, without warning. It’s like constantly being bombarded, like somebody putting their fingers in the wound. No, it’s not easy.”

In 2006, Nancy was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame, and she brought her family together for the occasion. She was later honored by TCM with a night dedicated to her films in 2021, and in May of the following year, her 1968 album with Lee Hazlewood, Nancy & Lee, was reissued on vinyl.

Francis Wayne Sinatra Jr.

Frank Sinatra Jr. performs during the Jazz Roots: Frank Sinatra Jr. Sings Sinatra, a Multimedia Centennial Celebration on March 11, 2016 in Miami, Florida.

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Francis Wayne Sinatra, better known as Frank Jr., was born to Sinatra and his wife on Jan. 10, 1944. When Frank Jr. was just 6 years old, his parents divorced. Still, he reportedly attended his father’s performances regularly and began learning his music.

As a young man, Frank Jr. attended the University of Southern California to study piano and composition. He also joined a singing group at Disneyland and eventually left college for an opportunity to be a vocalist in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra group.

“At first I felt like I was living in [my dad’s] shadow,” he told The Guardian in 2012. “But I did develop my own following eventually, so I must have been doing something right.”

Frank Sinatra Jr.: His Life in the Spotlight in Pictures

Frank Jr.’s world was turned upside down on Dec. 8, 1963, when he was kidnapped for ransom by Barry Keenan, Joe Amsler and Johnny Irwin. The men demanded $240,000 from Sinatra for the release of his son, which the singer paid although, unbeknownst to him, Frank Jr. had already been released.

“I knew Frank Jr. had been in boarding school and wasn’t close to his father,” Keenan told PEOPLE in 1998, noting that in his drug-altered perception, he thought that “a kidnapping would draw them closer.” Frank Jr.’s kidnappers were apprehended, and most of the ransom money was recovered.

Frank Sinatra and Frank Jr. on the set of ‘It Happened in Brooklyn’.

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Frank Jr. continued to perform, releasing his first of many albums, Young Love for Sale, on Reprise Records in 1965. He also tried his hand at acting, making several appearances in TV and movie roles throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, including A Man Called Adam and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Once, when introducing his son, Sinatra gave his honest thoughts about his son’s career as a performer.

“When [your child chooses] to make their career a profession that has been very good to you, you have all sorts of emotions going at the same time,” Sinatra said. “You think to yourself, ‘Is he really good, or do I just want to believe that he’s good? Will the audience accept him and what he’s doing, or will they bring their own kind of prejudices into their judgment?’ But I’m about to introduce my son, and namesake, Frank Sinatra Jr., and all those questions go right out of the window, ‘cause I think he’s terrific.”

Frank Sinatra Jr. and Frank Sinatra circa 1967 in Los Angeles, California.

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On March 1, 1987, Frank Jr. became a parent himself with the birth of his son Michael. The following year, Frank Jr. put his singing career on hold to become his father’s musical director — he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 that he jumped at the chance for this role.

“From the time we’re children, we’re used to our parents providing for us. I always wanted personally to be able to say I put something back,” Frank Jr. said.

The “Fly Me to the Moon” singer spoke about his working relationship with his son in 1989. “I thought it’d be kind of fun to work with Frankie because he’s been around the business so long now and we never had much chance to work together,” he said.

The two collaborated for seven years before Sinatra gave his final performance in 1995. Frank Jr. also appeared on his dad’s Duets album during this period, on which he sang “My Kind of Town.”

“Those seven years that I was with him, they went by like seven weeks,” Frank Jr. later told Bill Newcott.

Frank Sinatra Jr, and Frank Sinatra Sr. at the Hotel Americana, following Jr’s performance at “The Royal Box”.

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On May 14, 1998, Sinatra died of a heart attack. The year was bittersweet for Frank Jr., who was married to Cynthia McMurry just five months later on Oct. 18. They were wed for a little over a year before divorcing on Jan. 7, 2000.

Frank Jr., who was diagnosed with prostate cancer later in life, poured himself into work, making appearances on shows such as The Sopranos, Family Guy and more.

The musician continued to perform, singing right up until the day he died of a heart attack in 2016. His sister announced his death on her Facebook page, writing, “The Sinatra family mourn the untimely passing of their son, brother, father, uncle, Frank Sinatra, Jr. of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona, Florida. January 10, 1944 – March 16, 2016.” She added, “Sleep warm, Frankie…”

Christina Sinatra, 75

Tina Sinatra attends the grand opening of Sinatra Bar & Lounge on April 14, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Sinatra and his wife welcomed Christina “Tina” Sinatra on Father’s Day, June 20, 1948. Just three years later, her parents split, leaving Nancy Sr. as the kids’ primary caretaker.

“Your parents are everything to you. [My dad] was just a parent from a bit of a greater distance,” Tina told The Republic in 2015. “He took us on trips, like any other parents, sometimes without Mom. And we had a little more fun when we were with him. He was home always for our birthdays or he’d see that we got to him.”

As a teenager, Tina began exploring the world, making overseas voyages with her father. “We made many trips to Europe together, Dad and I,” she said. “And New York. He showed me Hoboken for the first time. He walked me down Times Square for the first time when I was about 17.”

Though Tina turned down a stint at Yale’s Drama School at age 18, she studied the craft under the actor Jeff Corey. She also shared her musical talents on the 1968 Christmas album, The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Frank Sinatra and Tina Sinatra.

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Around 1969, Tina moved to Munich, Germany. Not content to miss his younger daughter’s 21st birthday, Sinatra arranged to surprise her when she returned home for a celebration.

“I was told that dad had been called out of town on an emergency,” she wrote in her 2002 book, My Father’s Daughter: A Memoir. “I understood, but it was a big disappointment, as I hadn’t seen him for months.” In actuality, Sinatra showed up at the dinner, pretending to be a musician hired for her party.

According to the author, just a few people had been aware of her father’s surprise. “He didn’t want to risk any leaks,” she wrote. “I stood to greet him and we cried and hugged for a long time.”

Frank Sinatra with his daughters Nancy and Tina, circa 1956.

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Tina eventually returned to California for good and in 1970, she announced her engagement to Hollywood star Robert Wagner. She never made it down the aisle: the pair called off their engagement a couple of years later. Still, Wagner remembered Tina fondly in a 2017 radio interview. “I had a wonderful time with her,” he said. “She’s a very special girl, I loved her very much.”

The businesswoman moved on with Wes Farrell in 1974, tying the knot with the music producer in a penthouse apartment at Caesar’s Palace on Jan. 26. The marriage didn’t last, however, and by 1976, they were divorced.

The newly single Tina starred in an episode of the series Fantasy Island, and by 1981, she had remarried, this time to Richard M. Cohen. The pair made it two years before splitting in 1983.

On the work front, the businesswoman was busy keeping her father’s legacy alive: she executive produced Sinatra’s 1992 miniseries, Sinatra and would later go on to produce the 2004 remake of her father’s 1962 film, The Manchurian Candidate. After her father died in 1998, Tina reflected on the legacy he left behind.

“It’s like, he’s in my life,” she told PEOPLE in 2015. “People don’t forget their parents when they die, if they knew them well. My parent feels like he’s with me … I don’t feel separated from him and breached [from him].”

Frank Sinatra and his daughter Tina Sinatra sing during the taping of ‘The Dean Martin Variety Show’ circa 1967.

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Though Tina has lived largely away from the spotlight since her book release in 2002, she gave her input for the Sinatra 100: An All-Star GRAMMY Concert that was held in honor of her famous father.

“I actually had suggestions and handed them in and some of them stuck. It was collaborative but I think the choices were quite obvious,” she told The Republic in 2015.

Tina and Nancy also participated in The Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas Show, which was revived for the first time in 54 years in 2021.

“I thought it was good to share,” Tina told PEOPLE of the special. “I’m not morbid about the times we’re living through, but it’s just that I found — I hadn’t seen it in decades — I got such a hoot out of watching it, and it just felt right to do.”

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Source: HIS Education