Who Were Frank Sinatra’s Wives? Meet the 4 Women Who Married the Music Legend
- - Who Were Frank Sinatra’s Wives? Meet the 4 Women Who Married the Music Legend
Patti GrecoJanuary 26, 2026 at 1:00 AM
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Frank Sinatra famously sang that love and marriage "go together like a horse and carriage"—and apparently he really meant it. Over the course of his legendary career, Ol’ Blue Eyes was married four times to four very different women: Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx. Each bride represented a different stage of Sinatra's personal and professional life (and he remained on good terms with every woman after they divorced.)
Keep reading for a complete guide to Sinatra's wives—from his high school sweetheart and Hollywood mistress—to the May-December romance and the one he'd call his wife to the end.
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How many wives did Frank Sinatra have?
Sinatra had four wives: Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx.
Who were Frank Sinatra’s wives?
Frank Sinatra, Nancy Barbato and their children (Nancy, Tina, Frank Jr.) Photo by Hulton Archive on Getty Images (Photo by Hulton Archive on Getty Images)Nancy Barbato (married 1939–1951)
Sinatra’s first wife, Nancy Barbato, was his childhood sweetheart from Jersey City, New Jersey. They married before he became famous—when she was a secretary at a printing plant and he was a singing waiter—and she stood by him through his early rise as a crooner. Together they had three children: Nancy Sinatra Jr., Frank Sinatra Jr. and Christina “Tina” Sinatra.
As Sinatra’s fame grew, so did the strain on his marriage. His infidelities—most notoriously his affair with Hollywood sensation Ava Gardner—became tabloid fodder. Still, for years, Nancy refused to grant her philandering husband a divorce. “I have something too fine and precious to give up,” she told The New York Times in 1950. A year later, her marriage to Sinatra came to an end, and just weeks after that, he wed Gardner.
Despite everything, Nancy remained a constant presence in the “My Way” singer’s life, up until his death from a heart attack in 1998, at the age of 82.
Famously, she never remarried. According to Tony Oppedisano—a former member of Sinatra's management team who wrote a memoir titled Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours—the longtime associate once asked Nancy why she never took another husband.
"She said, ‘Well, for one thing, the children were small. I never wanted my kids to doubt who their father was. That was always number one for me,” Oppedisano recalled in an interview with Fox News. “And [over the years] I thought about it. And I realized, once you’ve married Frank Sinatra … how the hell am I going to top that one?’"
Related: Nancy Sinatra Reminisces on ‘Bond’ With Brother in ‘Heavenly Birthday’ Tribute
Sinatra and Ava GardnerPhoto by Silver Screen Collection on Getty Images (Photo by Silver Screen Collection on Getty Images)Ava Gardner (married 1951–1957, but separated as of 1953)
Sinatra’s marriage to Ava Gardner remains one of Hollywood’s most famous—and famously tumultuous—love stories.
The two first crossed paths in 1949, when Gardner was already a major MGM star and Sinatra was facing a major career slump. But despite being at such different points in their professional lives—and despite Sinatra being, uh, married—he and Gardner carried on a highly-publicized affair.
In November 1951, weeks after Sinatra’s divorce from Nancy was finalized, he and Gardner married. From the start, the relationship was turbulent. Both spouses were said to have volatile tempers and both were prone to cheating. Sinatra reportedly bristled at Gardner’s independence and success, while Gardner resented Sinatra’s possessiveness and mood swings.
In Lee Server's 2006 biography of Gardner, a former friend of the couple, Sheila Sim, recalled going out with them in London alongside her husband, Richard Attenborough. "It was a terrific love affair, but it was very volatile," Sim recalled in the book (via The Telegraph).
"We picked them up … and Ava came whistling right out. She refused to stop for any of the autograph seekers, and she got in the car. Then she looked around and Frank was still outside … signing autographs for everyone. Ava became absolutely livid … and when he finally joined us, they had the most almighty row."
Ironically, it was during the collapse of their marriage that Sinatra’s career rebounded. His Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity in 1953 marked a major comeback, but the professional revival did little to heal his marriage. That same year, he and Gardner separated; their divorce was finalized in 1957.
Even so, Sinatra and Gardner remained close friends until her death from pneumonia in 1990, at the age of 67.
Sinatra and Mia Farrow on their wedding day in Las VegasPhoto by Keystone on Getty Images (Photo by Keystone on Getty Images)Mia Farrow (Married 1966–1968)
Nearly 30 years Sinatra’s junior, Mia Farrow was just 21 and best known for the TV series Peyton Place when she married the 50-year-old singer.
Their union was short-lived and saddled by clashes over Farrow’s ambition, which didn’t suit Sinatra’s more traditional views of marriage. “In terms of what Frank would say, I shouldn’t have done anymovies,’ Farrow told Vanity Fair in 2013. “He’s on the record saying, ‘I’m a pretty good provider. I can’t see why a woman would want to do anything else.’ That’s the way men thought, and you felt pretty guilty wanting something for yourself.”
Tensions came to a head when she accepted a role in Roman Polanski’sRosemary’s Baby in 1967. Sinatra reportedly demanded she quit the film and co-star with him in The Detective, going so far as to serve her with divorce papers on the set after she refused. She completed the picture, which earned her a Golden Globe and cemented her status as a serious actress. But her persistence came at a price: She and Sinatra divorced in 1968, after less than two years together.
Still, the age-gap couple remained friends and even continued to see each other romantically on occasion, including during Farrow’s relationship with Woody Allen, for years. Some people believe her son with Allen, Ronan Farrow, is actually Sinatra’s (“Possibly,” she told Vanity Fair), but that’s never been confirmed through a paternity test.
When asked by VF whether Sinatra was “the great love of [her] life,” Farrow said, simply, “yes.”
Related: Mia Farrow Shares Touching Tribute to Late Ex-Husband Frank Sinatra
Barbara Marx and Sinatra were married up until his death in 1998.Photo by Joan Adlen Photography on Getty Images (Photo by Joan Adlen Photography on Getty Images)Barbara Marx (Married 1976–1998)
Sinatra’s final marriage—to former model and showgirl Barbara Marx—was his most lasting. The two married in 1976 and remained together until his death in 1998.
The pair had actually met years before they tied the knot, when Barbara was married to Zeppo Marx and Sinatra was still with Ava Gardner. The couples were neighbors in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and according to Barbara’s 2011 memoir, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank, a casual day on the tennis court—when Gardner asked Barbara to be her doubles partner—set the stage for her affair with Sinatra.
Although the legendary crooner went on to marry Mia Farrow in 1966 and Barbara remained married to Marx until 1973, the two eventually found their way back to each other and exchanged vows in 1976.
Despite standing the test of time, their marriage wasn’t without tension, particularly with Sinatra’s daughters, Nancy and Tina.
In her 1985 memoir, Frank Sinatra: My Father, Nancy wrote that she cried for a week prior to her father’s wedding to Barbara because it meant there was “no chance now” for him to “grow old” with her mother.
And in her 2000 book, My Father’s Daughter, Tina revealed that she learned of her father’s death from a doctor, via phone. “Barbara could have called us – she could have called!” she wrote. “But she did not call.”
While Frank remained devoted to both his wife and his children, the friction between his leading ladies never fully eased. When asked by The New York Times in 2011 if their tension was difficult for her husband to tolerate, Barbara said, “You’d have to ask him that.” Alas, he was already dead.
Related: Frank Sinatra’s Resurfaced Dressing Room Rider Has Commenters Raising Their Eyebrows
Are any of Frank Sinatra’s wives still alive?
Mia Farrow is the only one of Sinatra’s four wives who’s still alive today. She’ll turn 81 in February 2026. Nancy died on July 13, 2018, at the age of 101; Gardner died in 1990, at the age of 67; and Barbara died in 2017, when she was 90. She’s buried next to Sinatra at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, Calif.
Was Frank Sinatra faithful to his wives?
Are you kidding? Sinatra was unfaithful in all of his marriages. In her memoir Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank, his fourth and final wife, Barbara, wrote that “women would always be part of the deal with Frank.”
“I tried not to meddle in his personal business,” she went on to tell The New York Times. As for the friendly relationships he maintained with his exes, she shared, "A very wise French lady once said to me: 'You never worry about old flames. You worry about new ones.'"
Up Next: Frank Sinatra Makes History with First No. 1 Song Since 1967
This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
