Who are Lucille Ball's children? Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr fought for mother's legacy
Lucille Ball is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time and even 20 years after her death, fans fondly remember her as someone who filled their lives with happiness with her movies. So, it doesn’t come as a shock that a filmmaker has decided to make a movie on her life. Celebrated screenplay writer and filmmaker Aaron Sorkin are set to come out with the highly anticipated movie ‘Being the Ricardos’.
The movie follows the relationship ups and downs of 'Love Lucy' stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem respectively, exploring the complexities of life in the limelight. The pair were known for their rocky love story and they got married in the early 1940s. However, the marriage did not start on a good note and Lucille filed for divorce in 1944. But the couple reconciled and they tried making their married life a happy one. On July 17, 1951, one month before her 40th birthday, Ball gave birth to daughter Lucie Desiree Arnaz. Meanwhile, a year and a half later Ball gave birth to her second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.
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In 1960, Lucille obtained a divorce from Desi and revealed that her life with Desi was a nightmare. However, she shared a lovely relationship with her children and to this date, Lucie and Desi Arnaz Jr, love their mother to the core. So, let’s dig a little deeper and get to know about Lucille Ball’s children.
Who are Lucille Ball’s children?
Lucie Desiree Arnaz
Born on July 17, 1952, Lucie Desiree Arnaz is the oldest daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She spent some of her time in New York and attended St Vincent Ferrer School. Just like her mother, she also began acting at a very young age and had walk-on roles on her mom’s TV series ‘The Lucy Show’. She made her acting debut in 1968 with the TV series ‘Here’s Lucy’. After garnering a lot of praise for her acting, she started getting roles on a wide range of TV shows.
However, she would go on to have a successful career in musical theatre. Her roles in ‘Seesaw’, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, ‘Masterclass’ and ‘Dirty Little Scoundrels’ received rave reviews from the critics as well as audiences. Lucie has been instrumental in preserving her mother's legacy. She was once the president of the board of directors of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York.
In a recent interview, Lucie explained how her parents had such a busy life and all they ever wanted was “time”. She told WTOP, “What I can tell people is that we lived very similar lives to your lives. Sure, they were stars and had a fancy house in Beverly Hills. We didn’t want for anything … except time. We wanted for time with our folks.”
She also stated that their (she and her brother Desi Arnaz Jr) were not as luxurious as everyone thought it was. After the divorce, they couldn’t live the life that they wanted to and told people that they should be happy in what they have.
Lucie and her husband Laurence Luckinbill remain married to this day and currently live in Palm Springs, California.
Desi Arnaz Jr
Born on July 19, 1953, Desi Arnaz Jr got really famous even before he was born. At that time, Lucille and Desi were the stars of ‘I Love Lucy’ and the writers made Lucille’s pregnancy a part of the story. The same day Ball gave birth to Desi Jr, the fictional Lucy Ricardo gave birth to "Little Ricky."
He always had an interest in music and joined a band called ‘Dino, Desi & Billy’. The band scored two hit singles with ‘I'm a Fool" and Not the Lovin' Kind in 1965. Desi Jr. also began his acting career with his sister and appeared on ‘Here’s Lucy’. He also hosted an episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1976 with his father Desi Arnaz.
Arnaz Jr was in a relationship with model Sarah Callahan-Howe and had a daughter named Julia, whose relationship to Desi Jr was proved by a paternity test. Later, he married actress Linda Purl in 1979 and the couple got divorced just a year after their marriage. On the other hand, he married Amy Laura Bergiel in 1987. Desi and Amy had a daughter named Haley, and they lived together in Nevada.
The lives of Lucille and Desi Arnaz will be explored in the upcoming movie ‘Being the Ricardos’. The movie is helmed by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin and stars Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. It’ll be interesting to see if Lucie and Desi Jr’s life will be shown in the movie or not.
‘Being the Ricardos’ will be streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday, December 21.