‘I Love Lucy’: What Lucille Ball Thought of Her second Husband’s Parenting
I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball married entertainer Gary Morton in 1961. She had a lot to say about her second husband’s parenting.
Lucille Ball said her husband was hungry for a family
In her book, Love, Lucy, Ball said she could tell Morton really wanted a family of his own. She also said he seemed to be lonely.
“I sensed in him a great loneliness and a hunger for a family, but at the same time, a wonderful, philosophic calm,” wrote Ball. “There is an acceptance and balance about him. And unlike so many of us in show business, he isn’t plagued by dozens of insecurities. He gives his best and seems naturally resistant to the kind of doubt that eats away at so many other performers.”
What Lucille Ball thought of her second husband’s parenting
Ball was impressed with Morton’s ability to parent her children. According to her, he knew when to be playful with them and when to be stern. She said one of the reasons the children took him seriously was because of his deep voice. They knew he meant business when they were in trouble.
Gary has wisely not tried to force himself on them or to buy their favor with presents; he hasn’t refrained from being the firm disciplinarian, either, when that’s indicated. When they hear that deep basso voice of his, they hop to it!
And when they want to play, he’s available. He swims with them and takes them golfing. He wrestles with them and lets them chase him through the house shrieking with laughter, the sound I like best.
Lucille Ball, Love, Lucy
Lucie Arnaz opened up about her parents
Although Ball tried her best, Lucie Arnaz, Ball’s daughter, says her mother had “very little” to do with raising her. Extended family and employees were there the most for the children. Specifically, little Lucie’s grandmother and nurses were responsible for much of her day-to-day care.
“I think it hurt my mother a lot that she had to make a choice between this career thing and this child thing,” said Lucie in the book Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. “She was trying very hard to make her life happier, so she had a baby, finally … Who knew 20 seconds later she was going to have a hit TV series? And there goes that. Deal with the baby later.”
Lucille Ball said Gary Morton made her happy
Ball had no intentions of getting married after her divorce from Arnaz, but she changed her mind after getting to know more about Morton. She said she loved his sense of humor and he made her very happy.
I’m happiest when I’m working, rising to challenges. With Gary, I’ve become a woman with a capacity for happiness again. When he first came to visit us in Beverly Hills, before we were married, Gary made the mistake of saying that he had run a movie projector in the Army. Out came my thirty consecutive hours of home movies. Bachelor Gary was too polite to protest; I had him running baby pictures for days.
Lucille Ball, Love, Lucy
