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Meet Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s 2 Kids Lucie and Desi Jr.: Inside the ‘I Love Lucy’ Duo’s Family
Together they created one of the most iconic sitcoms ever with I Love Lucy, but Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were more than just actors on the small screen — they were also parents to two kids.
After tying the knot in 1940, the famous couple welcomed their first child, daughter Lucie, in 1951. However, that wouldn’t be it for the power pair, as they would have a second little one two years later — this time a boy they named Desi Arnaz Jr. Unfortunately, after 20 years of marriage, the stars would call it quits on their relationship.
“They were fighting all the time when we were growing up. There was a lot of anger and screaming,” the duo’s eldest child once exclusively told Closer Weekly of her parents. “Their divorce was horrible. And then there was the alcoholism. I had preferred those things had never been there. We didn’t have any abuse, but we did go through some pretty hard stuff and that’s why my parents didn’t stay together.”
Lucie Désirée Arnaz
Just like her star parents, Lucie also went the Hollywood route, becoming an actress, singer and producer. As a child, she would make walk-on roles on her mom’s legendary show, eventually becoming a regular on Here’s Lucy — she of course played Lucy’s daughter on screen.
Lucie also found herself working on stage and in films, earning a Golden Globe nomination for the latter for her performance in 1980’s The Jazz Singer.
Lucie has been married to fellow actor Laurence Luckinbill since 1980. They share three children.
Even with the up and down relationship that her folks had, Lucie still remembers them being special people. “She was very kind to her fans and always took time for them,” Lucie once recalled to Closer Weekly of her mother. “She taught me that if they come up and bother you while you’re eating your dinner, don’t get crazy. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have anything. And my father was the same way: very generous, very appreciative, very grateful for every single bit of it.”
Lucie had nothing but kind words to say about her late dad who helped put I Love Lucy on the map. “After many, many years, lots of people are acknowledging what was created and that the show was historic and pioneering for television,” she explained. “It’s not all him and he never took credit for all of that himself. He credits the people he was smart enough to hire, who figured out how to do a three-camera show in front of a live audience on film, which had never been done before.”
Director Aaron Sorkin worked for years to develop a film based on Lucy and Desi’s relationship. It was announced that the film, Being the Ricardos, would be released by Amazon Studios in December 2021. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were tapped to play the iconic television couple. Before production began on Being the Ricardos, Aaron met with Lucie and Desi Jr. to discuss how their parent’s relationship would be portrayed in the film. They served as executive producers on the film.
“We all had lunch together, and she said to me, ‘I know my mother wasn’t an easy woman. Take the gloves off.’ In other words, you can go for it,” Aaron told The Hollywood Reporter in November 2021 about his conversation with Lucie.
Lucie saw an advanced screening of Being the Ricardos in October 2021. She admitted in an Instagram video that the movie is “freaking amazing” and that Nicole and Javier’s portrayal of her parents has her full approval. The actress applauded Aaron for being able to capture “the essence of that time in their lives so well.”
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV
No surprise here, but Desiderio — better known as Desi Arnaz Jr. — also found himself in the entertainment industry, as he became an actor and a singer. Desi was famous from birth, appearing on the cover of the first ever TV guide, after his mom made her pregnancy a part of a storyline on the sitcom.
Not only was Desi in a band called Dino, Desi, & Billy, but he also appeared in Here’s Lucy alongside his big sister and mother. He also hosted Saturday Night Live, starred with Melanie Griffith in the film Joyride and even played his own dad in the movie The Mambo Kings. Desi is a father of two.
In recent years, he’s been keeping a pretty low profile in Hollywood. In August 2024, he was seen in rare photos posted on Lucie’s Instagram page. Fans were delighted to see him reappear after so many years away from the spotlight.
“Desi is alive and well, my friends- just likes to stay a bit ‘undercover'” Lucie assured her followers in her caption.
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