Rita Hayworth’s 5 Marriages: Love, Heartache and Hollywood Drama

Classic Hollywood stars are often known for their many marriages and it turns out actress Rita Hayworth was no different. 

Best known for her work in My Gal Sal (1942), Cover Girl (1944), Gilda (1946), Fire Down Below (1957), Circus World (1964) and The Road to Salina (1970), the actress was married five times throughout the course of her career, all of which sadly ended in divorce. There is so much to know about each of her spouses, including her highly-publicized love affair with Orson Welles. Keep reading for more. 

Edward C. Judson (1937 to 1942) 

The actress married Edward C. Judson in 1937. At the time of their wedding, Hayworth was 18, her husband was 41, and had already been divorced twice, both of which caused the actress’s parents to freak out. 

It is widely believed that Judson was the person who helped Hayworth launch her acting career and even made her change her name from Margarita Carmen Cansino to Rita Hayworth. And while that seems sweet, he was simultaneously helping himself to every penny Hayworth made, making it safe to assume his acts of kindness to further her career were for his own reasons.. 

The two divorced in February 1942, with the actress citing marital cruelty as the reason. After it was finalized, Hayworth was left broke and homeless despite her well-established Hollywood career. 

Judson, on the other hand, died on Christmas Eve in 1988 and reportedly never married after Hayworth. 

Orson Welles (1943 to 1947) 

Hayworth’s most famous marriage came only a year after her first one ended. In 1943, the actress married actor and director Orson Welles at the Santa Monica Courthouse. She was 24, and he was 28. 

“I never saw a happier, more tickled, more delighted, adorable couple in the world,” Welles’ secretary, Shifra Haran, said.  

A year later, the duo welcomed their first and only child—a daughter named Rebecca—and while they were reportedly overjoyed at the time, things started to go downhill quite fast after that. By 1946, Hayworth had moved she and her daughter out of Welles's house, the pair divorcing the following year and only reuniting for the film The Lady from Shanghai.

Despite the rocky history, though, Hayworth did reportedly tell Welles, “You know the only happiness I’ve ever had in my life has been with you,” to which he replied, “If this was happiness, imagine what the rest of her life had been.”

Following their divorce, Welles did remarry one more time before passing away in 1985 at age 70. 

Prince Aly Khan (1949 to 1953) 

Aly Khan was a socialite and ambassador for Pakistan who was married to Hayworth from 1949 until 1953. The pair met in 1948 at a party on the French Riviera and fell quickly in love.

 Soon after, Hayworth decided to marry Khan and leave her acting career behind to follow him around the globe. 

A little over a year after their wedding, Hayworth welcomed her second child overall and her first with Khan, but sadly, it wasn’t enough to keep things from falling apart. Reports claim that Hayworth struggled to keep up with Khan’s friends, and there were also several rumors that he cheated on her throughout their marriage. 

In the end, though, what ultimately led to their divorce was how cruel Khan was to Hayworth, a trend that continued after their split and well into their custody battle, which ended with his untimely death in 1960. 

Following Khan’s passing, Hayworth got full custody of their daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, whom she raised alongside her other daughter, Rebecca. 

“We had a close mother-daughter relationship filled with mutual respect and love,” Yasmin said in 1987.  “My sense of responsibility and duty to my mother was strong."

She also added that she thinks Hayworth and Khan were in a “truly good relationship.”

Yasmin is currently 74 years old and has one child. 

Dick Haymes (1953 to 1955) 

Directly after divorcing Khan, Hayworth married singer Dick Haymes. Details around the relationship remain unclear. According to several widely believed rumors, the two called off their marriage due to a series of financial and legal troubles, though what those were remains unknown. 

Hayes remarried twice after Hayworth before dying at age 61 in 1980. 

James Hill (1958 to 1961) 

Hayworth’s fifth and final marriage was to producer and screenwriter James Hill. The two tied the knot three years after the actress divorced Haymes, despite only knowing each other for four months. While it seemed to be love at first sight, Hill wasn’t too happy when Hayworth decided to retire from acting, and that led to the two of them splitting up in 1961. 

Twenty-six years later, Hayworth died in 1987 after a long battle with Alzheimer's. She was 67 and never entered into a public relationship after Hill. 

For more old Hollywood relationships, keep scrolling!

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