Meet Lucille Ball And Desi Arnaz's Two Children

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Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are one of the most celebrated sitcom couples of all time. Decades after "I Love Lucy" came to an end, the couple, who were married for 20 years, continues to find new fans thanks in no small part to Ball's amazing comic timing and Arnaz's straightman style. Both on screen and behind the scenes, Ball and Arnaz did things their own way, including having the first TV show to portray an interracial couple. And while their on-screen marriage brought laughter to millions every week, their behind-the-scenes relationship wasn't always funny, especially for their two children.

Ball and Arnaz met while filming the 1940 musical comedy "Too Many Girls" and quickly fell in love and married just six months later. And while Ball and Arnaz always put on a good show for the press, their life together wasn't always ideal. The two briefly separated in 1944, supposedly due to Arnaz's drinking and extramarital affairs. and Ball suffered multiple miscarriages as they tried to start a family. Through it all, the two started working together more, ensuring that they spent more time together. In 1950, they created Desilu Productions, and in 1951, the couple created "I Love Lucy" and welcomed their first child, Lucie Arnaz. Ball gave birth to their second child, Desi Arnaz Jr., in 1953. 

Getting "I Love Lucy" on the air was a struggle for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. CBS approached Ball about turning her hit radio show, "My Favorite Husband," into a TV series with her co-star Richard Denning, but Ball demanded that her real husband, Desi Arnaz, play her husband on the series. CBS was wary of the idea, fearing American audiences wouldn't accept an American woman being married to a Cuban man. Ball and Arnaz went on tour, proving that audiences loved seeing them together. 

On July 17, 1951, just six weeks before "I Love Lucy" started filming, Lucie Désirée Arnaz was born. Lucie opened up to People about growing up with famous parents, saying, "I think from probably [from the] age of birth up through 7, they weren't home a lot." "I Love Lucy" ended in 1957 and was followed by "The Lucy-Desi Hour." That series finished in April 1960, a month after Ball filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz. Ball and Desi Arnaz went their separate ways but continued to play important roles in their children's lives.

As the child of two stars, Lucie also had a talent for performing, and she started to show off her skills at 9 years old by putting on shows in the family's garage. Wanting to support her daughter's dreams of performing, Lucille Ball had a stage built in the garage so Lucie and her friends could get a better feel for the real thing. Lucie made her television debut when she appeared on "The Lucy Show" in a number of roles. At 15, she took on the role of Kim Carter on "Here's Lucy," playing the fictional daughter of Lucy Carter, who was played by Lucille Ball.

Despite what a rumor almost as old as Desi Arnaz Jr. claims, the second child of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz was not born on live TV, but his birth was part of a media event. Desi Jr.'s parents planned his Cesarean birth to happen on January 19, 1953, the same day that Lucy would give birth to Little Ricky on "I Love Lucy." The story was so big that it overshadowed the inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower the next day. Two months later, Desi Jr., whose full name is Desiderio Albero Arnaz IV, was introduced to the world on the cover of the very first TV Guide, which only added to the "born on TV" misconception.

Like his mother and sister, Desi Jr. had a talent for acting, but his first love was music. Following in his father Desi Arnaz Sr.'s footsteps, Desi Jr. started playing the drums at 4. By 11, he formed his own group, Dino, Desi, & Billy with Dean Martin's son Dean Martin Jr. and school friend Billy Hinsche. The band was quickly signed to Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records, and their 1965 album, "I'm a Fool," was an instant hit. The band went on tour, opening for the Beach Boys. Desi Jr. quickly became a pop idol, touring with the band and acting on TV.  He made four appearances on "The Mother-In-Law" from 1967-1968, and even played himself in a 1970 episode of "The Brady Bunch" centered around Marcia's secret crush on him. He also played Craig Cater on "Here's Lucy," but was not a series regular like his sister and mother. In 1971, he won a Golden Globe for the film "Red Sky at Morning."

While her mother helped her get her career started, Lucie Arnaz quickly proved that she had the talent to do it on her own. While appearing in 119 episodes of "Here's Lucy" Lucie also starred in the 1975 TV movie "Who Is the Black Dahlia?" playing the ill-fated Elizabeth Short. Lucie married her first husband, Philip Vandervort Menegaux, in 1971. The two divorced in 1976.

In 1977, Lucie Arnaz made her big screen debut in "Billy Jack Goes to Washington," the fourth film in the Billy Jack franchise. Sadly, the film wasn't as successful as the previous three. After that, Lucie returned to her first love; the stage. She made her Broadway debut in 1979's production of Neil Simon's "They're Playing Our Song," and received critical acclaim. For her role in the musical, Lucie was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and won the Theater World Award while the show itself was nominated for four Tony Awards. It was on "They're Playing Our Song" where Lucie met her second husband, Laurence Luckinbill. They married in 1980 and welcomed their first child, Simon, that same year. Their second, Joseph, followed in 1981, and their daughter, Katharine, arrived in 1985. Like her mother before her, Lucie kept working while raising her children, continuing to appear on stage and screen. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for the critically panned Neil Diamond remake of "The Jazz Singer," and starred in her own TV series, "The Lucie Arnaz Show," which was cancelled after just six episodes. 

Desi Arnaz Jr. became a father at just 15 after a relationship with teen model Susan Callahan-Howe, though he would deny that the child was his until a paternity test proved it in 1991. In 1972, at just 19, Desi Jr. announced his engagement to Liza Minnelli, who was 26. It was a union that Lucille Ball disapproved of, and she was right; Minnelli ended the engagement in 1973 after meeting and falling in love with Peter Sellers. 

In 1979, Desi Jr. was, as he told the Los Angeles Times, "dangerously close to the terminal stage of drug abuse." His father convinced Desi Jr. to go into rehab. likely saving his life. That same year, Desi Jr. married actor Linda Pearl, but the two divorced a year later. He soon met his second wife, Amy Laura Bargiel, and the two wed in 1987, settling down in Boulder City, Nevada. Desi Jr. also adopted Haley, Bargiel's daughter from a previous relationship. After the paternity test proved that Julia Arnaz Massey was his daughter, Desi Jr. became a part of her life. Masey told Page Six, "Shortly after that my father and I started a beautiful relationship." Through it all, Desi Jr. kept working, most notably on the cult classic 1983 series "Automan."

In 1992, Desi Jr. played his father in the Antonio Banderas movie "Mambo Kings." Six years later, Desi Jr. reformed Dino, Desi, & Billy, with Ricci Martin filling in for Dean Martin Jr., who had died in 1987. In 2015, Amy Laura Bargiel died from cancer. Since then, Desi Jr. has avoided the spotlight, though he did produce the 2021 movie "Being the Ricardos." In 2024, Lucie Arnaz took to Instagram to assure fans that Desi Jr. was "alive and well."

Lucie Arnaz returned to Broadway in 1992 to play Bella in Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers." During this time, she was also working to secure the legacies of her parents. After Desi Arnaz died in 1986 and Lucille Ball followed in 1989, Lucie and her husband began working on the Emmy-winning TV movie, "Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie," which premiered in 1993. In 1998, she co-wrote "The I Love Lucy Guide To Life," a humorous self-help book taking lessons from her parents' classic series. 

Lucie kicked off the 2000s by starring in the original West End stage production of "Witches of Eastwick" opposite Ian McShane. She and her brother Desi Jr. served as executive producers on 2001's "I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special," which was followed up by the 2003 TV movie, "The Desilu Story." In 2006, Lucie joined the Broadway musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and graced the wooden boards again in 2014 for the Broadway revival of "Pippin." In 2018, Lucie recorded the audiobook of her mother's autobiography, "Love, Lucy." She followed this up by putting on her one-woman show, "I Got the Job! Songs From My Musical Past" in 2019, exploring her own story for the first time. The show, which featured Lucie performing musical numbers from her past work while telling tales of her life on stage and screen, was a hit and returned to New York's 54 in 2023. In between, Lucie, along with Desi Jr., produced the 2021 Academy Award-nominated film, "Being the Ricardos," starring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball.