Legendary actress Judy Garland was loved by millions on the screen, but unfortunately, her actual love life was a little more tumultuous. Judy, who would have been 100-years-old on Jun. 10, 2022, endured many tragedies throughout her life, often fueled by the stress of being a young woman under the spotlight. For instance, in the memoir Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, Judy’s third husband Sid Luft detailed her crippling anxiety, body image issues, her unhealthy coping mechanism by way of self-medication, and suicide attempts. Judy’s deep insecurities also affected her relationships, including hers with Sid.
So, who are the men who stole Judy’s heart throughout her successful yet dramatic life? Find out all there is to know below.
David Rose
In 1941, Judy married successful British-born composer David Rose. Their union was quite controversial, as she was just 19 years old and David was 12 years her senior. Judy’s mother, Ethel Gumm, and MGM, the studio with which Judy had a contract, both protested the marriage because they did not want her good-girl reputation to be smeared. However, they were determined to make their love official and eloped in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, their marriage only lasted until 1944, and it was quite a messy one. Judy was forced to get an abortion during their marriage after her demanding mother and MGM scheduled the procedure for her. She got another one in 1943 after she became pregnant again, but this time, as a result of an affair in 1943 with A-list actor of the time Tyrone Power.
The Emmy and Grammy-winning musician was married for a few years before Judy and was married to Betty Bartholomew from 1948 until he died in 1990. He had one daughter, Melanie Lee Rose, with Betty.
Vincente Minnelli
Judy did not wait long to walk down the aisle again, as a year after her divorce from David, she tied the knot with director Vincente Minnelli. The pair met on the set of the 1944 box office hit Meet Me In St. Louis and instantly hit it off. They collaborated twice more during their marriage, first for 1945’s The Clock and then in 1948’s The Pirate.
The marriage made Judy a mother, as she gave birth to her and Vincente’s first and only child together, Liza Minnelli, in 1946. In a 2017 interview, she recalled what it was like having Judy and Vincente as parents. “[It was like living in] the land of dreams,” she told Closer Weekly.
However, Liza was subject to Judy’s drug addiction, and she recalled that her childhood wasn’t all pretty. “If she was happy, she wasn’t just happy. She was ecstatic. And when she was sad, she was sadder than anyone. There were no middles,” she explained. “I was used only to screaming attacks or excessive love bouts, rivers of money or no money at all, seeing my mother constantly or not seeing her for weeks.”
Judy’s growing problems took a toll on her and her marriage, and she and Vincente separated in 1951. Some of Vincente’s best work as a director came at the end of and after his relationship with Judy. He released the musical comedy An American in Paris in 1951 and the musical film Gigi in 1958, which was based on the novel bearing the same name by Colette. An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture and Vincente won Best Director for Gigi. Vincente went on to marry three more times and had another daughter, Christiane Nina Minnelli, with Georgette Magnani. According to the biography Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood’s Dark Dreamer, he was a closeted gay man who lived openly before the pressures of Hollywood got to him. He died in 1986 at the age of 83.
Sid Luft
Keeping on-trend, Judy quickly got married following her divorce from Vincente to Sid Luft in 1952. They produced two children during their marriage, a daughter Lorna, born in 1952, and a son Joey, born in 1955. Just like Judy and Vincente, Judy and Sid worked together while married. Their most notable work is 1954’s A Star Is Born, which Sid produced and in which Judy starred. The film was originally created in 1937 and has been recreated four times, most recently in 2018, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
Another huge thing to come out of their marriage, which ended in 1965, was a string of notes written by Sid before his death in 2005 that was meant to appear in his autobiography. In the draft, he noted some of the most unsettling events in their marriage and Judy’s life. For instance, her arguably most iconic movie, The Wizard of Oz, was apparently an awful set to work on, as Sid claimed the munchkin characters groped the 16-year-old teen behind the scenes. “They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress. The men were 40 or more years old,” he wrote in his posthumous memoir, Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland.
He also claimed the star had an abortion without his knowledge after he handled her pregnancy news poorly. “I found myself saying, ‘Of course I want your baby, but we’ve got a show to do,'” he wrote.“Because of my negative reaction, Judy didn’t confide in me where and when she was going to have the abortion. I wasn’t attentive. I didn’t send flowers.”
He also detailed the toll Judy’s pill and drug dependency took on her and their love. “She had been encouraged to take pills by the studio bosses and then she began to rely upon them,” Sid recalled. “Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor, among others, were similarly caught in the studio dope traps. This feeding of narcotics to children was a dark secret known only to those connected to the studio.” He also claimed that when he tried getting Judy some help, she refused, and they eventually drifted apart.
However, Sid wasn’t an angel, either. During their divorce, Judy accused him of hitting her “many times” and having an addiction to alcohol, per Today. He was also in hot water for trying to sell the Oscar Judy won for the The Wizard of Oz, but was sued by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and lost. He was married twice more after Judy and died of a heart attack at the age of 89.
Mark Herron
Judy tried her luck at love a fourth time with actor Mark Herron, but the relationship was rough from the start. They separated five months after their 1965 Las Vegas wedding and Judy accused him of physically abusing her. He died at the age of 67 in 1996 and in his obituary, it was written that he only hit Judy in “self-defense.”
Mickey Deans
Unfortunately, entrepreneur, musician, and drug dealer Mickey Deans and Judy were a married couple for only a few months in 1969 before her untimely death. The couple dated on and off for three years before their marriage and first met when Mickey was tasked with delivering stimulants to her New York City hotel room. Following their marriage, Judy told reporters that Mickey was her true love. “This is it. For the first time in my life, I am really happy. Finally, finally, I am loved,” she said, per Vanity Fair.
Unfortunately, Mickey found Judy dead on the floor of their London apartment three months later. She died of a barbiturate overdose. He never remarried and died in Ohio at the age of 68 in 2003.