It is well known that divorce is more common now than in generations past. It is not unusual for there to be quite a few branches growing out of parts of our family tree where our relatives have divorced and then later remarried. Sometimes, though, it may get a bit tricky to fit all of this information onto a pedigree chart if, for example, a person marries and has a few children, divorces, remarries someone who also has children, divorces them, and goes on to divorce and remarry a few more times.
If you think that such things do not happen, you may be out of the loop on Hollywood gossip. While multiple marriages happen in plenty of families that are not famous, those who walk the red carpet seem especially prone to making multiple trips down the aisle. For example, Christie Brinkley, Liza Minelli and Joan Collins have each been divorced four times. It’s not just the ladies that are unlucky in love, though. Jerry Lee Lewis has divorced four times, as has Martin Scorsese.
Four divorces may seem like a lot, but Danielle Steel has been divorced five times. This is very interesting because she is an author, and her works deal largely with relationships and romance. Film producer Robert Evans has been divorced six times, yet he has been married seven times – one of his marriages was annulled. Zsa Zha Gabor has been married and divorced seven times. While many of the marriages of frequently divorced celebrities last only a few years, Mickey Rooney is an exception. He has seven divorces on his record, but he eventually settled down and has been married to Jan Chamberlin since 1978.
If there is someone (or more than one someone) in your family who has divorced and remarried more than a time or two, preserve this unique part of your family’s history by documenting all of the marriages and divorces on your family tree. You may even wish to write a chapter of your family history about the person and their many loves, or even an entire volume. If you do write about your relative’s marriages and divorces, be sure to make note of the celebrities that have had as many or more marriages and divorces as your relative so that future generations will know that Uncle Lou was not the only person in his time to marry and divorce four separate times.