How Many Times Was Raquel Welch Married and Did She Have Children?
Raquel Welch died at the age of 82. She enjoyed a successful acting career that lasted for decades. How many times was Welch married, and did she have any children? Here’s what we know about the TV and movie star.
How many times was Raquel Welch married?
Although Welch was married four times, she was not married at the time of her death. Welch married her first husband, James Welch, in 1959. They later divorced in 1964. She married her second husband, Patrick Curtis, in 1967 and they divorced in 1972. Welch was married to her third husband, André Weinfeld, from 1980 to 1990. Her fourth marriage was to Richie Palmer. They were married from 1999 to 2008.
Welch’s third husband, Weinfeld, spoke about his marriage during an interview with Closer Weekly. According to him, their union was a happy one. “We had a very happy marriage,” Weinfeld tells Closer.
However, the former couple reportedly drifted apart because they were often in different locations. Although their marriage didn’t last, Weinfeld was proud that they lasted for 10 years. “Today, Hollywood marriages last three months and that’s considered long,” he says.
Weinfeld said he didn’t hold any grudges against his ex-wife, but he pointed out that she didn’t follow through on something she said after they parted ways. “She promised me she would sail into the sunset, and I can see she hasn’t,” said Weinfeld. “She married after me.”
Did Raquel Welch have children?
Welch had two children with her first husband, James Welch. She had a son named Damon Welch and a daughter named Tahnee Welch. In her book, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Welch said she had a good relationship with her children. She described Damon and Tahnee as her “great joy.” She said she was proud of the people they grew up to be.
“They are a source of pride and hope to me because of the kind of people they turned out to be,” wrote Welch in her book. “They have always grounded me and given me purpose, as well as the moral courage to follow my better convictions.”
Raquel said her career took a toll on her family. She had some regrets about how hard she worked at the beginning of her career.
“When I’m running around the world and being Miss Sex Symbol and having this big career in film and everything and I’m running from place to place, I couldn’t always be with my children when I wanted to be,” said Welch (via Oprah.com). “Eventually, I could see that this was taking its toll on my kids, and it used to just break my heart.”
Raquel Welch didn’t see herself as a sex symbol
Welch was known as a sex symbol in the 1960s. Her movie, One Million Years B.C., gained Hollywood’s attention and established her as one of the entertainment industry’s hottest actors. A November 1969 article in The New York Times stated that her figure “can’t be overlooked.”
Welch didn’t think of herself as a sex symbol. She identified as a mother first. Said Welch in her book, “The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!”
Follow Sheiresa Ngo on Twitter.
