Frank Sinatra was married four times over the course of his life, and his
marriage to final wife Barbara seems from the outside to have been the most
successful of them all. Frank’s marriage to Barbara was his longest, and he died with
her by his side. However, Frank’s children, all of whom came from the crooner’s first marriage, never
liked Barbara. In fact, one of them even blames Barbara for their father’s death! Join Facts Verse
as we explore how Frank Sinatra’s daughter feels his final wife was responsible for his death.
Nancy Sinatra Jr. Feels Her Father Could’ve Lived Longer
When Frank Sinatra died, he was 83 years old. Given that the beloved singer drank
and smoked heavily throughout his life, most of his fans assumed that the legendary crooner had
lived about as long and fulfilling of a life as he could have. However, there’s one figure that feels
that Frank could’ve gone on for a few more years if it wasn’t for the fact that he was stuck in a
negative domestic situation. That figure is Nancy Sinatra Jr., who is one of Frank’s three kids.
Frank Sinatra was a notorious womanizer that slept with innumerable women over
the course of his life, though he only married four. However, as Nancy Jr. likes to put it,
fourth wife Barbara liked to pretend that she was the only one that Frank was ever married to.
This certainly rubbed Frank’s children the wrong way, as all three of them came
from the crooner’s first marriage. Nancy Jr. has claimed since her father’s death that she
felt like Barbara was trying to erase her, her siblings, and her mother from Frank’s past.
Frank Sinatra’s first wife was a woman by the name of Nancy Barbato, and he married her
before becoming a star. Frank and Nancy were married from 1939 to 1951, meaning
that Frank’s first marriage lasted a good deal longer than both his second and third marriages
combined. Those marriages would be to actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow, respectfully. Frank’s
marriage to Ava Gardner was incredibly tumultuous and lasted from 1951 to 1957,
with the two stars being drunk the majority of the time. Around a decade later,
Frank was married to Mia Farrow for a period of a little over a year, which started in 1966.
Frank’s Last Marriage Was His Longest While Frank Sinatra’s marriage to his first
wife lasted a good deal longer than his second and third marriages, the crooner’s marriage to fourth
and final wife Barbara was the longest of them all. It was also seemingly the most successful,
though recent remarks from the late singer’s children suggest that things were not quite so
peaceful within the Sinatra home towards the end of Frank’s life.
Frank’s marriage to Nancy started out before the crooner became famous, and Nancy didn’t exactly
like the changes she saw happening in her husband when he started getting attention as a singer.
Frank started partying excessively and cheating on Barbara with other women, including Ava Gardner.
Frank Sinatra’s affair with Ava Gardner is said to have been what finally put an
end to the crooner’s first marriage. The singer then went on to marry
Ava the same year of his first divorce, though Frank and Ava seem to have been
relatively miserable throughout the entirety of their union. Frank had three children with his
first wife Barbara during their marriage, and he never had any more kids after that.
Frank and Barbara Met Years Before Their Marriage Frank Sinatra’s kids had watched their father
stumble drunkenly through his marriages to Mia Farrow and Ava Gardner, and they didn’t think
much of it. However, things seemed quite a bit different when Barbara came around. Frank and
Barbara had first met in 1957, when Frank was just getting over his relationship with second wife Ava
Gardner. At this point, Frank was partying harder than ever, and it was in a drunken Las Vegas
stupor that the singer first beckoned to Barbara. Apparently, Frank was hanging out with his fellow
Rat Pack members Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin when he noticed a beautiful blonde showgirl across
the bar. That blonde showgirl was Barbara, and a drunken Frank Sinatra proceeded to catcall her.
Barbara ignored him, even after her friend explained to her that the drunken, catcalling man
was Frank Sinatra. According to the late Barbara, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with drunks.
Frank’s first attempts to woo Barbara seems to have failed miserably, and the
showgirl would later end up married to classic comedic actor Zeppo Marx.
Zeppo and Barbara then ended up moving into the same California neighborhood as Frank Sinatra,
after which point Frank and Barbara struck up a friendship. Of course,
this friendship would later turn into a romance. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to
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Frank and Barbara Ended Up Becoming More Than Friends
Sometime after Frank Sinatra’s marriage to Mia Farrow ended in 1968,
Frank and Barbara became more than friends. At the time, Barbara was still married to Zeppo Marx.
The fact that Barbara was willing to cheat on Zeppo arguably should’ve
been seen by Frank as a red flag, though Frank and Barbara’s marriage still ended
up being the longest of the four that the crooner was involved in over his lifetime.
Barbara’s affair with Frank caused her and Zeppo’s marriage to dissolve, and the pair was officially
divorced in 1973. By that point, Frank and Barbara had already begun to take things to the next level
in their relationship. Barbara could be seen accompanying Frank all over the world for his
performances, and it seems like the two were a match made in heaven. Barbara could drink almost
as much as Frank could, and she even smoked just as much as him! However, the crooner’s late fourth
wife would go on to claim that Frank insisted she quit smoking soon after they got married.
Legend has it that Frank Sinatra proposed to his fourth and final wife by placing a beautiful,
diamond engagement ring in a glass of champagne. Of course, Barbara said yes, and
the pair would go on to tie the knot officially in 1976. Shortly before the wedding ceremony
went down, Barbara claims that she was handed a prenuptial agreement to sign. As the woman
seemingly had no ulterior motives in the marriage, she signed the agreement without thinking.
Barbara Asked Frank to Annul His First Marriage One thing that made Frank Sinatra’s fourth
marriage different than his second and third is that it was officiated with a
Catholic ceremony. This meant that Frank’s marriage to first wife Nancy Barbato had to
be retroactively annulled. For those that don’t know, annulment differs from divorce and makes
it so that an entire marriage is considered void from the beginning. This is typically done
for religious purposes, as was the case with Frank and Nancy. While Frank and Nancy had been
divorced for over two decades by that point, the annulment was still said to have hurt the woman.
In addition to hurting Nancy, Frank’s demand for the annulment also rubbed Nancy Jr. the
wrong way. According to Nancy Jr., she felt that the annulment was one of Barbara’s attempts to
try and erase Frank’s past so that she could be considered the only true wife that the crooner
had over the course of his lifetime. Nancy Jr. also claimed that another such attempt
to overwrite the singer’s past came when Barbara tried to convince Frank to adopt her adult son.
Nancy Jr. ended up talking her father out of adopting the son, who was well
into his adulthood at the time. Of course, it’s atypical for adults to be officially adopted,
and it’s understandable that Nancy Jr. questioned Barbara’s motive.
If we’re giving Barbara the benefit of the doubt, she likely only cared about such things as divorce
and adoption because she felt that they were the proper things to do. However,
it’s still certainly understandable that Nancy Jr. should’ve had some negative feelings about
seeing her father start a new family with a new woman. For all intents and purposes,
Frank’s second and third marriages had been extended love affairs. With Barbara,
Frank finally found a replacement for Nancy Barbato, and his kids noticed.
Nancy Jr. Blames Barbara for Her Father’s Death Nancy Jr. has taken her criticism of her father’s
fourth and final wife so far that she has even come to blame Barbara for her father’s death.
According to Nancy Jr., her father would’ve lived longer if it hadn’t been for the
fact that he was forced to live with such a cruel woman. Some examples that Nancy Jr.
points to when she is asked to illustrate her late stepmother’s cruelty include the
fact that Barbara refused to personally call her when her father was on his deathbed.
According to Nancy Jr., she had to learn about the fact that her father was just about to die
from the doctor, as Barbara refused to contact her. This certainly seems cruel,
but one also has to consider the fact that Barbara likely and rightfully
thought that Nancy Jr. hated her. After this incident, Nancy Jr. vowed to never
speak another word to her stepmother again, and she made good on her promise.
Barbara ended up passing away herself in 2017, nearly two decades after Frank’s 1998 death. Over
those years, Nancy Jr. claims that she never spoke to her late stepmother a single time.
After Barbara’s passing, she was buried alongside her late husband. However,
Nancy Jr. seemingly ended up getting the last laugh. Upon Frank’s death,
Barbara had his gravesite marked with a stone that referred to Frank as a beloved husband and father.
Sometime after Barbara’s passing, this gravestone was replaced with a new one that read “Sleep Warm,
Poppa”. Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this change
was made by one of Frank’s children, and that whichever of the kids made the change didn’t feel
that the fact about their father being a beloved husband was all that important in the long run.
Although Frank’s fourth and final marriage seems from the outset to have been the crooner’s most
successful, Nancy Sinatra Jr. claims that it was anything but. Now it’s time to hear from you: did
you know that Frank Sinatra stole comedic actor Zeppo Marx’s wife and that Frank’s kids blame
the woman in question for their father’s death? As always, like this video to show your support,
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