Frank Sinatra Made the First Move on His Future Wife While Her Then-Husband Was a Room Away
Frank Sinatra and his fourth wife, Barbara Sinatra, were married for over 20 years, but their romance began while she was with someone else. They’d known each other for a while when Sinatra decided to push the relationship beyond friendship. The problem with this wasn’t just that Barbara was married, but that her husband was attending the same party, sitting just a room away.
Frank Sinatra’s future wife ignored him when he first saw her
Barbara’s first encounter with Sinatra came in the mid-1950s, long before they ever had a conversation. She was walking home late at night with two friends when the singer called out to her from a cocktail bar.
“Hey, blondie — come on in here,” Barbara revealed that he first said in the book Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra.
She wasn’t impressed, tired after a long day.
“Don’t you know who that is?” her friend asked. “Aren’t you even going to say hello?”
She didn’t want to talk to him. While she was a fan of Sinatra’s music, his public affairs and messy personal life were enough to make her keep walking.
He made the first move while her then-husband was present
Over a decade later, Barbara and her husband, Zeppo Marx, lived across the fairway from Sinatra in Palm Springs, California. The singer invited the couple over for a gin rummy party. It was here that Sinatra made the first move on Barbara.
“Frank had been watching me all night as if he was seeing me for the first time,” she wrote. “Sitting close, he called me ‘Barbara, baby’ in that killer voice and flashed me a lopsided smile. He asked if anyone wanted ‘more gasoline’ and offered to fix me a fresh martini. Taking my arm, he led me to the den.”
While Marx sat oblivious in the other room, Sinatra invited Barbara to sit with him.
“As we settled onto a couch, our eyes met, and then he pulled me into his arms and kissed me,” she wrote. “I knew with that first kiss that I was about to become another Sinatra conquest, and the thought snatched away what little breath he’d left me.”
She shared that after the first kiss, nothing more happened between them for months. Still, she eagerly anticipated his next move.
Frank Sinatra and his wife remained together until his death
In 1973, Barbara and Marx divorced. Three years later, she married Sinatra. The wedding took place at an estate in Palm Springs, just down the road from Sinatra’s home. A report from The New York Times revealed that the ceremony was protected by armed guards who made it impossible for the public or reporters to see it. Among the 130 guests were Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan, Sammy Davis Jr., and Elvis Presley. After the ceremony, the newlyweds gifted each other shining new cars.
Barbara was Sinatra’s fourth wife, and the marriage was his longest. They remained together until his death in 1998.
