Raquel Welch Dead at 82: Inside the Hollywood Bombshell's Four Marriages

Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz

Published: 5:05 PM PST, February 15, 2023

The Golden Globe-winning actress died Wednesday at the age of 82 following a brief illness.

Raquel Welch, the Golden Globe-winning actress and Bonafide bombshell, died Wednesday at the age of 82 following a brief illness. While her roles, including One Million [Years], B.C., Fantastic Voyage, The Three Musketeers and more made her an icon on screen over the last 50 years, her love life helped cement her bombshell status as well.

In the wake of her death, ET is taking a look back at her four marriages to James Welch, Patrick Curtis, André Weinfeld and Richard Palmer. None of Raquel's relationships worked out in the long run, but it was something she had made peace with in the latter years of her life.

"I’m too set in my ways," she told Piers Morgan on his Life Stories show in 2015 about why she hadn't found lasting love. "I like what I do, I actually enjoy being me, and I make a very good living at it, and I’m happy. I don’t have to have a man."

Keep reading for a full breakdown of Raquel's romantic history.

James Welch

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

James Welch and Raquel were high school sweethearts. They tied the knot in 1959 in Las Vegas, shortly after high school. The marriage went against her father's wishes, with Raquel recalling the defiant union in her 2010 memoir Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.

"By marrying Jim, I was doing something for my own personal satisfaction and pretty much in defiance of my father’s wishes," she explained. "What I didn’t anticipate was how a series of events would dovetail together and forever complicate my life. Jim and I were just settling into an apartment together and tackling the realities of married life: he was looking for a job, and I was calling my mother ten times a day for recipes and tips on cleaning products."

The couple would go on to have two children together, Damon Welch, who was born in 1959, and alter, Latanne "Tahnee" Welch, who was born two years later in 1961.

The couple then split in 1964. As for why they went their separate ways, Raquel said in her memoir that she and James had very little in common.

"I was always elated to see him and would chatter away nonsensically, out of sheer excitement. He, on the other hand, hardly said a thing! If he had, I might have discovered how little we had in common...but my schoolgirl crush on Jim lulled me into believing that he was the man of my dreams," she recalled. "And in some ways, he was. And yet, I realized years later that I was needy and that it caused me to project certain qualities onto Jim that he didn’t have."

Patrick Curtis

AFP/AFP via Getty Images

Raquel met Patrick Curtis -- a Hollywood producer -- at the height of her fame in 1965 while working on the film, A Swingin' Summer together. The pair would go on to tie the knot at City Hall in Paris, France two years later, but ultimately split in 1972, making her marriage to the filmmaker her shortest. Patrick died at the age of 83 on Nov. 22.

André Weinfeld

Patrick SICCOLI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

André Weinfeld was the second filmmaker Raquel married. The pair said "I do" in 1980 and stayed together for 10 years. While they ultimately split up in 1990, André called their union a "very happy" one.

"We had a very happy marriage," the French producer told Closer Weekly during a 2015 interview. "Today, Hollywood marriages last three months and that’s considered long."

As for the cause of their breakup, André said distance was the culprit, with the couple struggling to make their relationship work once the Trouble in Paradise actress moved from New York to Los Angeles, leaving André behind in the Big Apple.

Richard Palmer

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Raquel's final marriage came to pizzeria owner, Richard Palmer. Per the New York Post, the New York native and the Hollywood starlet met at a party in 1996. They would end up walking down the aisle three years later.

Speaking to the Post about his marriage to Raquel in 2000, Richard called the actress "a living legend.

"My wife is a living legend," he gushed. "I get great seats at the fights. You go wherever you want to go. It’s great."

They separated in 2003 and later divorced.

Following her marriage to Richard, Raquel put walking down the aisle again on the back burner.

"I don’t think I am that good at it," she told Morgan in that 2015 interview when asked if she'd marry again. "But I wouldn’t rule it out."

She continued, "They were swanning around being married to Raquel Welch. I never did get it right. And a lot of men don’t like the fact that when we go somewhere I am the one who gets focused on."

Still, she never regretted a single one of her four marriages, saying simply, it just "wasn't in the cards."

"I don’t regret the marriages. I had real feelings for all of those men," she maintained. "At the time I thought it was love and we could make a great life, but it wasn’t in the cards."

RELATED CONTENT: