#5 Reagan was third of Wyman's four marriages
In 1938, Wyman co-starred with Ronald Reagan in Brother Rat (1938), and its sequel Brother Rat and a Baby (1940). They were engaged at the Chicago Theatre, and married on January 24, 1940, at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church in Glendale, California. She and Reagan had three children; Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (1941–2001), the adopted son Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945), and Christine Reagan (born prematurely on June 26, 1947 and died the next day). She filed for divorce in 1948; the divorce was finalized in 1949. Since Ronald Reagan is the only U.S. president to have been divorced, Wyman was the only ex-wife of an American President.
Though she remained silent during Reagan's political career, she told a newspaper interviewer in 1968 that this was not because she was:
“bitter or because I don't agree with him politically. I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics.”
A few days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, Wyman broke her silence:
“America has lost a great president and a great, kind, and gentle man.” |
