The Hollywood stars with the most marriages - BBC News

The Hollywood stars with the most marriages

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"A girl must marry for love," actress Zsa Zsa Gabor once quipped, "and keep on marrying until she finds it."

That was a maxim Gabor, who has died at the age of 99, seemed to live by. With nine nuptials, she was the celebrity world's most prolific knot-tier. But others have come close.

Zsa Zsa Gabor

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Zsa Zsa Gabor's last marriage, to Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, lasted an impressive 30 years

Gabor's first marriage in 1937 was to Turkish politician Burhan Asaf Belge - but she later claimed to have had an affair with then president of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, while married to Belge.

She moved to the US and they divorced in 1941. She then met and married hotel magnate Conrad Hilton Senior in 1942 and the union produced Gabor's only child, Francesca. But the pair divorced after two years.

Next was actor George Sanders, followed by investment banker Herbert Hutner, Barbie doll designer Jack Ryan and her divorce lawyer Michael O'Mara.

Her marriage to Mexican lawyer Felipe de Alba was annulled because Gabor's marriage to O'Mara had not been properly dissolved.

In 1986, when she was 69, she married Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, and remained with him until her death.

Elizabeth Taylor

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Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married and divorced twice

Liz Taylor had seven husbands but eight weddings - she got married to Welsh actor Richard Burton twice.

She defended her record: "I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?"

Her first marriage at 18 was to Conrad Hilton Jr, the son of Conrad Hilton, who had been married to Gabor (see above).

Four years later, she married actor Michael Wilding, but after three years she moved on to film producer Mike Todd. When he was killed in an air crash soon afterwards, Taylor was distraught.

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The couple starred opposite each other in the film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Singer Eddie Fisher became husband number four in 1959, and Taylor and Burton entered into their first marriage five years later.

They became one of Hollywood's most famous couples, renowned for their passionate and turbulent relationship. They divorced after nine years, but reconsidered and remarried two years after that.

Their reunion lasted five months and they were divorced for the second time in 1976.

Then she met and married a former US naval secretary, John Warner, who became a Republican senator. That lasted until 1982.

Finally, she married builder Larry Fortensky in 1991. The couple met in rehab and got married on Michael Jackson's Californian ranch.

She once said: "I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too - for being married so many times."

Larry King

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Larry King and Shawn Southwick married in 1997

Like Elizabeth Taylor, US chat show host Larry King has been married eight times but to seven people.

His first marriage was to childhood sweetheart Freda Miller in 1952, but it was over by the following year.

Another brief marriage followed, this time to Annette Kay, before he wed a Playboy bunny called Alene Akins in 1961. But the couple divorced just two years later.

King then married Mary Francis Stuphin in 1963. However, they divorced three years later and King went back to Akins. But they divorced for a second time in 1972.

Maths teacher and production assistant Sharon Lapore was King's fifth wife, followed by businesswoman Julie Alexander. That union was also short-lived.

King is still married to his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, with whom he has two sons.

In his autobiography, King wrote: "When I look back, there are a few regrets. I certainly wouldn't have gotten married eight times. But I don't dwell on regrets."

Rita Hayworth

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Prince Aly Khan pursued Hayworth while she was on a trip to Europe

In 1937, budding actress Rita Cansino married Edward Judson, who was 22 years her senior and managed her early career. He advised her to change her surname to Hayworth and to dye her hair auburn.

She became a star - but filed for divorce in 1942.

Her second marriage was to director Orson Welles in 1943, but the pair divorced in 1948. In court documents, Hayworth wrote: "Mr Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life."

She then met Prince Aly Khan, who served as Pakistan's UN representative, in 1949. That lasted two years, before Hayworth moved on to singer Dick Haymes.

Her final marriage in 1958 was to movie producer James Hill, who cast her in one of her final major films, Separate Tables. That marriage lasted three years.

She once said: "What surprises me in life are not the marriages that fail, but the marriages that succeed."

Martin Scorsese

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Martin Scorsese has been married to his current wife since 1999

The director behind films such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street has been married five times.

The first was Laraine Marie Brennan, then in the '70s he tied the knot with writer Julia Cameron. But they divorced after just a year.

He was married to actress Isabella Rossellini between 1979 and 1983 before going on to marry producer Barbara De Fina in 1985. That also ended in divorce.

But with his fifth wife Helen Morris he has found a lasting union - the pair have been married since 1999.

Other serial spouses

Hollywood actress Lana Turner was married eight times. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis was married seven times, as was comedy actor Richard Pryor, while actor Tony Curtis tied the knot six times.

Actor Henry Fonda was married five times - the same number as Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, Stan Laurel, Joan Collins, Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton.

The younger generation

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Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore were divorced in 2013

Some younger stars already have several marriages under their belt.

Halle Berry has been married and divorced three times - first to baseball player David Justice, then Eric Benet and finally French actor Olivier Martinez.

Demi Moore has been married three times - she first wed when she was just 17, to singer Freddy Moore. She then got engaged to Emilio Estevez before meeting and marrying fellow actor Bruce Willis.

The couple were married for 13 years and the pair have three daughters. She later wed actor Ashton Kutcher but they split in 2011.

Drew Barrymore also married young first time around. She got hitched to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas aged 19 in 1994, but they split weeks later.

In 2001, she married comic Tom Green, but that lasted just six months. She married art consultant Will Kopelman in 2012 and they divorced earlier this year.

"Divorce might make one feel like a failure, but eventually you start to find grace in the idea that life goes on," the pair said in a statement.

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