Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds hooked up with an insane number of female celebrities over the
course of his life, but one of the romances that ended up being most special to the star
was the one he shared with recording artist and talk-show host Dinah Shore.
Although Dinah was nearly two decades Burt’s senior, the two shared a several-year-long
romance that nearly ended in the two tying the knot. Before his death,
Burt had a lot of regrets about leaving Dinah many years before.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Dinah Shore and Burt Reynolds left each other in heartbreak.
Every February from the mid-1990s until his death in September of 2018,
Burt Reynolds would make a point to visit Forest Lawns Cemetery in Palm Springs, California,
and lay a bouquet of flowers on the grave of legendary Hollywood entertainer Dinah Shore. Dinah
passed away in 1994 at the age of 77. Two decades previously, she and Burt Reynolds had shared a
romance that would go on to become one of the most meaningful of both legendary stars’ lives.
When Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore met in 1970,
Burt was 35 years old and was just starting to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Dinah Shore was nearly two decades the Hollywood leading man’s senior at 53. Dinah
had been working in the entertainment industry for many decades, having risen to prominence
during the 1940s as one of the decade’s defining recording artists. By the 1970s, Dinah was better
known to the public as a talk-show host. It was in this role that Dinah first met Burt.
Burt Reynolds had been a successful college football player before journeying to California
and trying to make a name for himself in Hollywood. His good looks and innate charm
helped him make a name for himself in the industry fairly quickly, and they also helped him catch
the attention of many of the industry’s prominent starlets. Besides Dinah Shore,
there are a number of other women that Burt Reynolds was rumored to have been
involved with during his early career, including Raquel Welch.
At the time that Burt first met Dinah Shore, he was living with a Japanese
actress by the name of Miko Mayama. There was even some gossip amongst the tabloids that Burt and
Miko were planning on getting married. However, Burt’s first meeting with Dinah changed all that.
Burt’s first meeting with Dinah occurred when he was a guest on her talk show. Instantly,
Burt found himself so smitten with the beloved female entertainer that he ended
up inviting her to come to stay with him for the weekend in Palm Springs.
Dinah declined this initial invitation, but Burt Reynolds didn’t let up and continued pestering
the talk-show host about accompanying him on a date. Eventually, Burt was able to secure
his date with Dinah Shore, and this date would lead to a several-year-long romance.
Burt Reynolds was aware of the massive age gap between him and Dinah Shore, but he didn’t care.
According to Burt, he had never met anyone like Dinah and she seemed much more youthful than he
was mentally and spiritually. Burt paid no mind to the fact that Dinah was nearly 20
years older than he was, but it’s undeniable that the age gap affected Dinah severely and
arguably contributed to her not committing to the relationship as much as she could have.
According to the late Burt Reynolds, his relationship with Dinah Shore opened
up a great many doors for him in the entertainment industry. While he was dating Dinah, Burt got to
meet such entertainment-industry luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, Groucho Marx,
and Orson Welles. All of these figures were celebrities that
Dinah had close and personal relationships with dating back to her earlier years in
Hollywood. In addition to Dinah hooking Burt up with all of these Hollywood luminaries,
Dinah herself was also an experienced entertainer who had a lot to teach Burt.
During the several years that they were romantically involved,
Burt and Dinah were inseparable. However, it gradually became apparent
to both the celebrity figures that they might not have the future together that either of them
had been hoping for. The two dreamed of moving to Hawaii together and building a house,
but this dream sadly never panned out for the celebrity couple. One of the big reasons that the
relationship between Burt and Dinah didn’t work out is because Dinah didn’t want to have children
with Burt. Burt was looking for a wife that whom he could have kids, but he was so in love with
Dinah that he didn’t consider her lack of interest in having children with him a deal-breaker.
When it became apparent that Dinah Shore wasn’t interested in having any biological children
with him, Burt Reynolds suggested that they could adopt kids instead. However, the pair’s Hollywood
relationship still ended up falling apart after only four years. If you’re enjoying this video
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Even though Burt Reynolds was adamant that he didn’t care if Dinah Shore didn’t want
to have kids, the beloved talk-show host still refused to marry him for one reason or another.
Once it became apparent that Dinah was never going to tie the knot with
him like he desired, Burt made the incredibly difficult decision to end the relationship.
Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore’s relationship came to an end after a confrontation in 1975, during
which it became apparent that the two Hollywood celebrities didn’t have much of a future together.
Although they both agreed that separating was the best option for both of them at the time,
both stars allegedly had an incredibly tough time with the breakup. According to Burt,
every time he picked up the phone after the breakup he had to actively keep himself
from dialing Dinah’s number. Many years later, Burt Reynolds finally had a child.
The mother ended up being Burt’s second wife, Loni Anderson, whom he married in 1988.
Although Loni Anderson managed to give Burt Reynolds what Dinah Shore never could, their
relationship sadly didn’t end up matching much longer than Burt and Dinah’s had. After marrying
in 1988, Burt and Loni went on to divorce in 1994. 1994 also happened to be the same year that Dinah
Shore passed away. While going through the process of divorcing Loni, Burt made an effort to try and
rekindle his romance with Dinah. It was at this moment that Burt learned that Dinah was suffering
from cancer. In fact, it was revealed that the true reason that Dinah had refused to marry
the actor so many years before was that she had been suffering from cancer all the way back then.
As we’ve already established, Dinah Shore was in her 50s when she first
met and subsequently became romantically involved with 35-year-old Burt Reynolds. Dinah had already
been married and divorced twice before the start of their romance, and she arguably
wasn’t looking for another serious long-term partner. As soon as the tabloids found out about
the romance between Burt and Dinah, they had a field day. Both figures were major celebrities,
and the giant age gap only made the relationship that much more tantalizing.
Burt and Dinah didn’t much mind the fodder that the tabloids made of their relationship. However,
Dinah would claim during the relationship that most of the things that the tabloids
speculated about their romance were false. The two spouses that Dinah Shore had over the course
of her lifetime were George Montgomery and Maurice F. Smith. Dinah had married George in 1943,
and they remained together until 1963. Over the course of their marriage, the pair had two
children. These were the only two kids that Dinah had over the course of her lifetime,
and she wasn’t especially anxious to have more by the time she met Burt Reynolds.
After Dinah and George divorced in 1963, Dinah married Maurice F. Smith the same year. Within
only a year, Dinah was divorced from her second husband. It would be less than a decade later that
Dinah would meet Burt Reynolds while interviewing him on her talk show. Although Dinah was once
again initially hesitant to become romantically involved with the much younger Hollywood actor,
the two eventually formed a romance that ended up lasting for four years.
After breaking up with Dinah Shore because she refused to marry him, Burt Reynolds would regret
the course of action he took in the relationship for the rest of his life. This is part of why the
actor left flowers on Dinah’s grave every February in the years leading up to his
own death in 2018. Burt Reynolds never remarried after divorcing Loni Anderson, but he had been
married once previously. Prior to meeting Dinah Shore on her talk show in 1970, Burt had been
married to British actress Judy Carne from 1963 until 1965. After breaking
up with Dinah and before marrying Loni, Burt would become romantically involved
with actress Sally Fields while filming the 1977 motion picture Smokey and the Bandit.
While Burt Reynolds passed away with sour feelings about how his relationship with
Dinah Shore had ended, it was Sally Fields that the actor claimed was the true love of his life.
Sally disagreed with the late actor’s deathbed sentiments and refused to attend his funeral.
Although Burt Reynolds passed away with strong regrets about how he had handled his relationship
with talk-show host Dinah Shore during the 1970s, it was Smokey and the Bandit costar
Sally Fields whom Burt claimed was the love of his life. Now it’s time to hear from you:
did you know that Burt Reynolds was romantically involved with a woman
twenty years his senior during his early career and that he went to his deathbed claiming that
his Smokey and the Bandit costar Sally Fields had been the love of his life? As always, like this
video to show your support, subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d
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