Frank met his first wife, Nancy Barbato, in 1934. The couple married five years later in Nancy’s hometown, Jersey City. Nancy grew up in the small beach town with her Italian-American family. During the early years of their relationship, Nancy worked as a secretary.
Between 1940 and 1948, the couple welcomed three children – Nancy Sandra Sinatra, Francis Wayne Sinatra Jr., and Christina “Tina” Sinatra.
The couple’s relationship began to fracture when they moved to Hollywood and Frank’s many extramarital affairs began. The singer famously began dating Ava Gardner in 1947. And while Nancy knew about the affair, she chose not to divorce her husband. “I have something too fine and precious to give up,” she said in a rare interview in 1950, per The New York Times.
But, a year later, Nancy and Frank separated. She became the primary parent to their three children, but remained close friends with Frank until his death. Nancy passed away at 101 in 2018, never remarrying and keeping Sinatra as her last name.
“I know [Frank] never stopped loving her. And I know she never stopped loving him,” the couple’s granddaughter A.J. Lambert wrote in a 2015 story for Vanity Fair. “‘Thank God I never re-married,’ [Nancy] said. I was never even close. I would have had to be in love, and I would never fall in love again.'”
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