Shirley MacLaine and Ex-Husband Steve Parker Had an ‘Open Marriage’: Details on Her Spouse 

Terms of Endearment actress Shirley MacLaine and her late ex-husband, Steve Parker, had quite the love story. The Oscar winner has always been very candid about her marriage and personal life over the years. Scroll below to learn more about her former spouse.

Who Was Shirley MacLaine’s Ex-Husband, Steve Parker?

Shirley met Steve for the first time in 1952 while she was making a name for herself on Broadway. The couple got married in 1954, just before her film career took off and led her to become one of the biggest stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Steel Magnolias actress admitted that the circumstances surrounding their marriage were untraditional. 

“I guess you would say [we] ‘practiced an open marriage’ in 1954, which was another lifetime,” she told People in March 2016. “No one understood it, we did. He lived in Japan basically; I lived in America working and this and that.”

Steve worked as a film producer, earning credits from 1962’s My Geisha and 1965’s John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! before focusing on his career as a businessman. The Downton Abbey alum traveled all around the world for acting gigs while her husband settled in Asia. 

“I think that’s the basis for a long-lasting marriage if you really want to do such a thing,” she reflected further on her open marriage. “I would say better to stay friends and we don’t have enough time to talk about the sexuality of all. I was very open about all of that and so was he.”

Shirley and Steve’s marriage ended in divorce in 1982 after 28 years. Steve died in 2001 at the age of 79.

Did Shirley MacLaine and Ex-Husband Steve Parker Have Any Children Together? 

Shirley and Steve welcomed one child together during their marriage, daughter Sachi Parker, in 1956. Sachi lived with her father in Japan throughout most of her childhood. In 2013, she released her memoir, Lucky Me: My Life With – and Without – My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, where she described what it was like growing up with a famous parent.

“She was very absent,” Sachi said during an episode of 20/20 in January 2013. “I was very lonely — very lonely. Definitely. And I still struggle with abandonment issues and loneliness.”

Years later, it appeared the pair were cordial for the sake of Shirley’s relationship with her two grandchildren, Arin and Frank, whom Sachi welcomed with her ex-husband, Frank Murray.

“She was hurt by the book, but realizes now how her behavior hurt Sachi,” an insider told Closer about Shirley in May 2020, adding that the grandkids “want the family to be healed once and for all. She’s making progress with Sachi, and they are all staying in touch.”