From the start, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s relationship was a whirlwind romance straight out of a Hollywood movie.
After meeting on the set of the film Too Many Girls in 1940, Ball and Arnaz quickly fell in love, and married later that year. Their union marked the beginning of one of Hollywood’s most iconic relationships that would go on to captivate audiences for decades, and leave a lasting legacy on the entertainment industry.
The duo created the iconic sitcom I Love Lucy in 1951, which revolutionized television and made significant contributions to comedy and representation on screen. Despite the challenges they faced as a couple and their eventual divorce, Ball and Arnaz’s relationship remained a powerful testament to their close bond and professional partnership.
From their whirlwind romance to their enduring friendship, here’s a look back at the iconic relationship of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
They met on a movie set in 1940
Ball and Arnaz first crossed paths on the set of Too Many Girls in 1940. Ball, who was starring in the film, was already an established actress at the time, while Arnaz was still emerging and cast in a supporting role.
Among their first interactions, Arnaz asked Ball if she knew how to rumba and, after a quick demonstration that caught the actress’ attention, Arnaz said: “I can teach you quickly, but only on condition that you go out with me tonight,” according to Warren G. Harris’ biography, Lucy & Desi: The Legendary Love Story of Television’s Most Famous Couple.
“I never fell in love with anyone quite so fast,” Ball recalled, per Harris. “He was very handsome and romantic.”
The pair quickly formed a bond, and their palpable chemistry became evident to the rest of their costars on set.
“You could tell the sparks were flying with Lucy,” Too Many Girls costar Eddie Bracken told PEOPLE in 1996. “It happened so fast it seemed it wouldn’t last. Everybody on the set made bets about how long it would last.”
Ball and Arnaz eloped six months after meeting each other
After Too Many Girls wrapped, Ball and Arnaz continued their relationship amid their respective hectic schedules, with long-distance calls that the actress later estimated to total up to $29,000, per Coyne Sanders’ biography, Desilu.
However, in November 1940, Ball and Arnaz were both in New York — where the musician was scheduled to play a show at the Roxy and the actress was giving an interview to a magazine (where she told the interviewer, “It would never work,” referring to Arnaz). Nonetheless, he proposed and the two eloped in Greenwich, Conn., on Nov. 30, 1940, about six months after they first met.
“Eloping with Desi was the most daring thing I ever did in my life,” Ball said, per Harris. “I knew I shouldn’t have married him, but that was one of the biggest attractions.”
“My friends gave the marriage six months,” Ball said, per Sanders. “I gave it six weeks.”
They created I Love Lucy together and revolutionized television
In 1950, Ball and Arnaz founded their own production company, Desilu (combining both of their names) and a year later, created and starred in the iconic sitcom I Love Lucy.
The show was a groundbreaking success, not only cementing their status as Hollywood icons but also revolutionizing television with its contributions to the industry. Ball’s role as the lead on I Love Lucy was relatively unheard of, as women were generally seen as secondary characters at the time. Similarly, Arnaz, as a Cuban-American, brought diversity and representation that was rare for primetime television in the 1950s.
The duo pushed boundaries further when Ball, pregnant with their second child, was among the first actresses to appear on television with a bump. However, making it happen wasn’t an easy feat. Ball and Arnaz received fierce pushback from the show’s execs, as the word “pregnant” wasn’t allowed on television, per Collider.
Instead, they used terms like “expecting” and “with child” to integrate Ball’s real-life pregnancy into the script, and the episode “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” made history, bringing in more viewers than any other program episode at the time, according to History.com.
The couple’s on-screen partnership, which reflected their real-life dynamic, was also unique for the times and added an element of authenticity that viewers increasingly tuned in for. The show ran for six seasons from October 1951 to May 1957, winning five Emmys throughout its run.
Ball and Arnaz had two children together
Ball and Arnaz had two children during their marriage, daughter Lucie Arnaz, born on July 17, 1951, and son Desi Arnaz Jr., born on Jan. 19, 1953. Their children became an integral part of their lives and often appeared on I Love Lucy spinoffs, Here’s Lucy and The Lucy Show.
Ball and Arnaz’s commitment to their children remained strong despite their marital issues.
“The marriage wasn’t good, it was just long,” Ball reportedly told The Washington Star in 1980. “But it wasn’t disastrous. Because you can’t have two beautiful children and call it disastrous.”
Lucie pursued a successful theater career, wherein she met her husband Laurence Luckinbill during a stage production and the two married in 1980. They have three children together and Lucie is the stepmom to Luckinbill’s two children from a previous marriage. Lucie also went on to earn an Emmy in 1993 for Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie and later recording audiobooks of her parents’ autobiographies.
Desi Jr. also dabbled in acting, earning a Golden Globe in 1971 for his role in Red Sky at Morning. He married Amy Laura Bargiel in 1987 and together, they restored the Boulder Theatre and adopted Bargiel’s daughter. Desi Jr. continued to act and produce, earning an Emmy nomination for the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special and working on Being the Ricardos.
In August 2024, Lucie posted a picture with Desi Jr. on Instagram, writing “Desi is alive and well, my friends- just likes to stay a bit ‘undercover.’ “
They divorced in 1960
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Despite their love for each other, Ball and Arnaz’s marriage was not without its difficulties. Their demanding careers often kept them apart, and Arnaz’s struggles with alcohol abuse and supposed affairs added strain to their relationship.
“It got so bad that I thought it would be better for us not to be together,” Ball said in court.
Bart Andrews, biographer of four books on Ball and I Love Lucy, told PEOPLE in 1991 that Ball told him by 1956 it “wasn’t even a marriage anymore.”
“They were just going through a routine for the children,” he added. “She told me that for the last five years of their marriage, it was ‘just booze and broads.’ ”
However, Ball and Arnaz managed to be civil throughout their separation.
“They had a very successful divorce. … They never said bad words about each other and they stayed friends until the day they died,” Lucie told Closer Weekly in February 2020. “It was a fantastic romance that got even more passionate and friendlier after they were not married to each other anymore.”
Ball and Arnaz remained close after their split
Following their divorce, both Ball and Arnaz moved on to new relationships. Ball married comedian Gary Morton in 1961, while Arnaz married Edith Mack Hirsch in 1963. Despite their new marriages, Ball and Arnaz remained connected through their children, Lucie and Desi Jr., and their shared legacy.
“Maybe I’m the romantic, but there was a great, great love there, there really was,” I Love Lucy director William Asher told PEOPLE in 1991. “Desi was very unhappy about the breakup, and I think she was too. I don’t think either one of them ever got over it.”
The last time they spoke was coincidentally on their wedding anniversary
In an interview with PEOPLE in February 2022, Lucie recalled witnessing her parents’ final goodbye. Arnaz was dying of lung cancer and Lucie, in the room with him at the time, passed the phone to her father with Ball on the other end.
“I could hear her say, ‘I love you.’ She said it five times in a row. And he was nodding and saying, ‘I love you too, honey,’ ” Lucie said. “He died in my arms. None of us realized it at the time, but the day they last spoke was Nov. 30, their wedding anniversary.”
She added that when thinking of the sitcom and legacy her parents left, at the core, “They did the show so they could be together.”
“They gave the country this wonderful creation,” Lucie said “But they never got what they wanted — to stay together. They loved each other until the end.”
Arnaz died of lung cancer on Dec. 2, 1986. Ball died of cardiac arrest a little over two years later on April 26, 1989.
