Though Mickey Rooney had a long and successful career in Hollywood, his many marriages were a different story. Rooney was married eight times, having said “I do” three times in the 1940s. His first wife was the iconic actor Ava Gardner. The marriage lasted a mere year, ending in 1943. The following year, he wed Betty Jane Phillips, with the couple’s divorce settled in 1949. He married actor Martha Vickers that same year, but they divorced in 1951.
Rooney married his fourth wife, Elaine Devry, in 1952. However, they split in 1958 after the actor began an affair with Barbara Ann Thomason. Thomason and Rooney married soon after, but Rooney had an affair during his marriage to her, too. In spite, Thomason carried on her own extramarital affair with actor Milos Milosevic. Thomason’s life ended in tragedy: She was killed by a jealous Milosevic, and Milosevic died by suicide, per People.
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For a little over three months, Rooney was married to a friend of Thomason’s named Marge Lane. And then, he went on to marry Carolyn Hockett, who was 23 years his junior, in 1969. They also ended up in divorce in 1975. Rooney’s longest marriage was to his eighth wife, Jan Chamberlin. The two wed in 1978; however, in 2011, he accused her son of abuse, and the couple separated two years before he died in 2014.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
