Despite his five marriages and four divorces, there was at least one instance in which Grant proposed and was not accepted. While filming ‘The Pride and the Passion’, the actor had a love affair with his costar Sophia Loren. He was 30 years older than her and married at the time, and she was in a relationship with producer Carlo Ponti, who was also married.
None of this kept Grant from falling for her and asking her to marry him. Loren said no and later went on to marry Ponti. The spark between them rekindled years later when they were working together on ‘Houseboat’.
Wives One, Two and Three
When Grant passed away, he was married to Barbara Harris, who was his fifth wife. Grant’s first marriage to Virginia Cherrill took place in 1934. She accused him of domestic abuse, and they called it quits. He married one of the richest women in the world, Barbara Hutton, in 1942.
They were married for three years before they separated. Grant’s next marriage was to a fellow actress by the name of Betsy Drake, and the pair actually stayed together for 12 and a half years, which for Hollywood is quite a good run.
Wives Four and Five
The third divorce was probably brought about by Grant’s affair with his 'The Pride and The Passion' and 'Houseboat' costar, Sophia Loren, ironically written by Betsy Drake, his wife at the time. He tied the knot again in 1965 with Dyan Cannon, another actress and the mother of his only child, daughter Jennifer, born in 1966.
The couple split in 1986, but Grant did not give up on love. He continued searching and in 1981, he married his fifth and last wife, Barbara Harris, a hotel public relations agent. They were married until his death in 1986.
“Each New Marriage Is More Difficult”
When asked about his marriages, Cary Grant would say this: “It seems that each new marriage is more difficult to survive than the last one,” and also added, “I’m rather a fool for punishment. I keep going back for more, don’t ask me why.”
Although some might say that getting married five times does seem foolish, in the end, it appears that Grant found the right match. His marriage to Barbara Harris which began in 1981, only ended due to the tragic circumstance of his stroke.
A Rocky Start
According to Grant’s friend, Prince Rainer of Monaco, he finally did manage to make it work. Rainer said that in his last marriage, Grant was the happiest he had ever seen him. This happiness was not easily won, it took a lifetime of trial and error.
The 2017 documentary, 'Becoming Cary', includes a segment in which Grant talks about his first marriage and why it was doomed. He says, “I doubt if either of us was relaxed enough to trust what we had,” he recalled. “My possessiveness and fear of losing her brought about the very thing I had feared: the loss of her.”