BREAKING: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Daughter Speaks Out About Dad's Alleged Affairs in Rare Interview

21/06/2025

Lucie Arnaz opened up about the moment she learned of her parents' divorce

Lucie Arnaz got candid about her parents Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's early Hollywood marriage in rare comments made in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, which aired Sunday, June 15.

Lucie, 73, said, "People say he had affairs. He never had an affair. He didn't even know these dames' names. They were hookers." CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca chimed in, asking, "They were transactional?"

Lucie responded, "Yeah. He loved my mother, he loved his family. It was a very unique, weird problem to have. And I think that's the reason she stayed with him so long, is that she understood it. I don't think I could do what she did."

She continued, "But somehow, at the time, with what they had, with what they needed from each other, they stuck it out as long as they could."

Lucille and Desi ended their marriage and subsequently their hit television show, I Love Lucy, in 1960. Lucie was 8 years old at the time, and her younger brother Desi Jr. was 7.

Lucie then recounted the moment she and her brother learned of their parents' separation. "We were at their house in Palm Springs, and they said that, 'We love each other, but being husband and wife part is broken, and we can't live together anymore.' "

The actress recalled her younger brother's reaction to the news. "I remember that my brother said, 'But if it's broken, can't you just fix it? Can't you put stuff on it and fix it?' "

Lucie Arnaz speaks during Lucie on the Lot: The Dr. Sam Fundraiser at Paramount Pictures Studios on June 05, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty

"And they said, 'I don't think so.' The truth of it is, Mo, they were happier after they got divorced. The screaming and the arguing and all that stuff stopped," Lucie admitted.

She then revealed that as a child, she felt the need to protect her famous father's image. "I was very protective of my dad, believe it or not. I felt really sorry for my dad. I felt like he was the one that got ousted."

In a 1991 PEOPLE cover story on the late couple, the late Ball's friend Lillian Briggs Winograd recalled spending time with Ball when Arnaz died in 1986 at 69. She appeared to echo Lucie's recent comments, and that in spite of Arnaz's infidelity, Ball still felt love for him years after their divorce.

"At the end, we drove down to Del Mar, where she went to see Desi a few days before he died [of lung cancer on Dec. 2, 1986]. She was very, very shook-up. She left that place and broke down and said, 'That was the one love…' " Ball died three years later in 1989. She was 77.

Bob Weiskopf, a longtime writer for the couple, told PEOPLE in 1991, "Basically, Desi’s attitude was, 'What the hell’s the matter? I love her. When I go out with women, they’re usually hookers. Those don’t count.' "