Lucie Arnaz is opening up about her parents’ tumultuous divorce in a revealing new interview.
Lucie, who was 9 when her parents, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, got divorced, spoke to Closer Weekly for their latest issue about the contentious nature of their split and the real reason why they weren’t able to stay together.
“They were fighting all the time when we were growing up,” Lucie, now 67, said. “There was a lot of anger and screaming. Their divorce was horrible.”
Lucille and Desi got divorced in 1960, 20 years after they eloped after just six months of dating in 1940. They welcomed Lucie in 1951 and their son, Desi Jr., in 1953. During that time, the internationally-beloved couple starred for six years together on “I Love Lucy,” which attracted 40 million viewers on a weekly basis and raked in millions for the couple.
Behind the scenes, though, their relationship was deteriorating.
“There was the alcoholism,” Lucie explained. “I had preferred those things had never been there. We didn’t have any abuse, but we did go through some pretty hard stuff and that’s why my parents didn’t stay together.”
Though both stars would go on to get remarried (Lucille to comedian, Gary Morton, and Desi to his neighbor, Edie Hirsch), “I Love Lucy” director William Asher thinks that they were the loves of each other’s lives.
“I think she always loved him, and there’s no question that he loved her always,” Asher said.
