Ava Gardner was the kind of woman who made men lose their minds. Honestly, the stories about her are so wild they sound like movie scripts themselves. She wasn't just another pretty face in Hollywood; she was a force of nature from North Carolina who didn't take any nonsense. People always ask, who was ava gardner married to, usually expecting a list of dozens of men.
Actually? She only married three times.
It’s kinda funny because, despite being one of the most photographed women in the world, her domestic life was basically a series of "glamorous disasters," as some biographers put it. She wanted love, but she mostly got fireworks—and not always the good kind.
The Teen Bride: Mickey Rooney
When Ava arrived at MGM in 1941, she was nineteen and incredibly green. She didn't even know how to put on makeup properly yet. Enter Mickey Rooney. At the time, Mickey was the biggest star in the world. Think of him like a 1940s version of a massive teen idol, except he was also an adult with a reputation for being a total "wolf."
He saw Ava on her first day at the studio and basically decided right then that he was going to marry her.
She turned him down. A lot.
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Eventually, his persistence won her over. They married on January 10, 1942. But here’s the thing: Mickey couldn’t stop being a bachelor. He loved the nightlife and other women way too much to settle down with a teenager from the South. The marriage lasted only 17 months. When they divorced in 1943, Ava was classy enough to cite "mental cruelty" instead of outing his cheating, mostly so she wouldn't ruin his wholesome "Andy Hardy" image.
The Intellectual Experiment: Artie Shaw
If Mickey was the fun, immature mistake, Artie Shaw was the "Professor Higgins" mistake. Artie was a brilliant jazz clarinetist and bandleader, but he was also notoriously difficult. They got hitched in October 1945.
Basically, Artie decided Ava wasn't "smart" enough for him.
- He gave her mandatory reading lists.
- He made her take an IQ test.
- He even hired a Russian chess master to teach her the game.
It was exhausting. Ava tried—she really did—to be the intellectual he wanted, but Shaw’s constant criticism wore her down. He was her second husband, and just like the first one, the marriage barely made it past the one-year mark. They divorced in 1946. Looking back, it’s pretty clear that Artie wanted a project, not a partner.
The Great Obsession: Frank Sinatra
This is the one everyone remembers. If you’re wondering who was ava gardner married to in a way that actually changed her life, it’s Frank.
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Their relationship was absolute chaos.
They met while Frank was still married to his first wife, Nancy. The scandal was massive. People sent Ava hate mail, and the Vatican even condemned them. They finally married in 1951, just days after Frank’s divorce was finalized. At the time, Frank’s career was actually in the toilet. He was broke and losing his voice, while Ava was becoming a massive superstar.
They were too much alike. Both had tempers that could level a building. They drank hard, fought harder, and loved with a kind of desperation that usually ends in flames. They had legendary brawls that involved trashing hotel rooms and, at one point, Frank even threatened to take his own life during their breakups.
Why It Didn't Last
Despite the passion, they couldn't find peace. Ava had two abortions during their marriage because she didn't feel their environment was stable enough to raise a child. That's a heavy thing for any couple to carry. They separated in 1953 and officially divorced in 1957.
The wild part? They remained friends until she died in 1990. Frank used to send her yellow roses every year on her birthday. When she got sick later in life, he stepped in to help with her medical arrangements. She famously called him the "love of her life."
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The Man She Never Married: Howard Hughes
You can't talk about Ava's husbands without mentioning the guy she didn't marry: Howard Hughes. The billionaire spent about fifteen years trying to get her to say "I do." He’d give her emerald rings (some of which had already been offered to other actresses) and have her followed by private detectives.
Ava thought he was nuts.
She liked him well enough as a friend sometimes, but she didn't love him. One night, things got so heated that she actually hit him over the head with a bronze bell after he got aggressive with her. She was one of the few people who could tell a man like Hughes "no" and mean it.
What We Can Learn From Ava's Romances
Ava Gardner's life proves that being the most beautiful woman in the room doesn't make marriage easy. She was fiercely independent at a time when Hollywood expected women to be submissive.
If you're digging into her history for a project or just because you love Old Hollywood, remember these takeaways:
- Don't ignore red flags: Ava knew Mickey was a player and Artie was a critic, but she hoped things would change.
- Passion isn't peace: The Sinatra years were romantic in a tragic way, but they weren't sustainable.
- Friendship matters: The fact that she stayed close with Frank and even Mickey shows she valued the humans behind the headlines.
To get a real sense of her voice, you should check out her autobiography, Ava: My Story. She doesn't hold back on the swearing or the honesty about her "three exes." It’s the best way to see the woman behind the "femme fatale" mask that MGM forced her to wear for years.