Mia Farrow’s ‘Heart Stopped’ After a Humiliating Introduction to Frank Sinatra

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra were married for two years and had a lifelong friendship. Though they divorced, the couple remained in each other’s lives for years. Their connection was strong, even though they got off to a rocky start. When they first met, Farrow had an embarrassing moment. She explained that when she rushed off to avoid further humiliation, she felt a jolt of connection with Sinatra.

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra divorced after two years

Sinatra married Farrow in 1966 when he was 50, and she was 21. They remained married for two years but divorced when Sinatra’s demands became too much for her.

“Sinatra divorced Farrow because he demanded that she drop out of filming Rosemary’s Baby after threequarters of the movie had been filmed, to co-star with him in a forgettable movie The Detective,” Sinatra’s biographer Darwin Porter said, per Express. “That was Sinatra being crazy, he’d do things like that. Mia loved him but his demands were unreasonable. She couldn’t do it.”

Both felt an immediate connection even though she embarrassed herself in front of him

When Sinatra and Farrow first met, he immediately wanted to get to know her. She fascinated him.

“I was hers, instantly,” Sinatra said, per the New York Post. “I loved that hair, man. I think the hair’s what got me.”

Sinatra invited Farrow to sit and talk to him. When she sat down to speak with him, she dropped her purse and a stale donut, a can of cat food, a tube of ChapStick, and her retainer scattered under Sinatra’s chair. She apologized profusely and jumped up to leave.

“I thought the only thing I could do was to get out of there with any shred of dignity that might remain,” Farrow explained. “And as I stood up to leave, his eyes met mine, and my heart stopped, you know? Everything came together. I was just so alive in that moment.”

They began a relationship soon after, and they quickly married.

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra remained close after their divorce

Though they fell in love quickly, the marriage did not last. Sinatra and Farrow divorced in 1968, but the love between them lasted.

“She never stopped loving him,” said Porter. “Sinatra was the love of her life. It was a love affair that continued even after their divorce and they remained close till the end. She told friends that she was still very much in love with him.”

When Farrow’s daughter accused her then-husband, Woody Allen, of inappropriate behavior, she turned to Sinatra for help. His family also welcomed Farrow’s son, Ronan Farrow, as one of their own. 

“He is a big part of us, and we are blessed to have him in our lives,” Sinatra’s daughter Nancy told Vanity Fair. She added that Farrow was also a part of their lives long after the divorce.

“From the early days until now, we have been like sisters,” she said. “My mother is also very fond of her. We are family and will always be.”