Comedienne Lucille Ball found out she was pregnant from a radio broadcast, according to a new biography of the I Love Lucy legend.
Lucille Ball found out she was pregnant from a radio broadcast.
The late comedienne – who was mother to Lucie, 73, and Desi Jr, 72, with husband Desi Arnaz – had some tests done shortly before learning she was expecting her eldest, but a new biography has alleged that a broadcaster learned of the news first after being “tipped off” by the medical lab.
In Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, Todd S. Purdum writes: “In June 1950, during the New York run of their vaudeville show, Lucy was relaxing in her dressing room between shows listening to Walter Winchell’s radio broadcast when she heard him announce she was ‘infanticipating,’ the columnist’s lingo for ‘pregnant.’ He’d been tipped off by a medical lab informant before the Arnazes themselves had learned the news.”
The tome also features interviews with the I Love Lucy star’s children, and Lucie recalled just how different her parents were from one another.
She said: “He would get really angry and blow his stack, and be loud, but then he’d be done and it would be like it never happened.
“[My mom] would get personally offended by childhood behavior or what you said, because you should have known not to say that somehow, even though no one’s taught you what to say.
“And she would emotionally separate from you for however long she wanted to. And it would be sometimes days, sometimes weeks.”
Lucille and Desi – who divorced in 1960 after 20 years of marriage – were known to audiences as a Hollywood power couple in their heyday but Desi Jr insisted that their fame “wasn’t good for anyone” in the family.
He said: “It wasn’t good for anyone.
“And we’ll always remember when they sat us down and said, ‘Look, you know, things aren’t working.’ I mean, I remember word for word.”
I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball found out she was pregnant from a radio broadcast
