Phil Donahue death: How he met wife Marlo Thomas on screen, sparking a love story
Marlo Thomas has introduced she will probably be taking a break from social media to mourn the lack of her husband of 44 years, American discuss present host Phil Donahue, who has died aged 88 after a lengthy sickness.
“Hello, Friends,” Thomas, 86, shared on Instagram.
“I’m sure by now you’ve heard the very sad news that I lost my sweetheart last night, so I know you understand that I’ll be stepping away from this page for a while to take care of myself and the many people who took care of Phil, and held him close to their hearts.
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Marlo Thomas with husband Phil Donahue, who has died aged 88. (Getty)
“As a man who spent his profession loving his audiences, Phil obtained such a kick out of our cozy little neighborhood right here, and I do know he can be very touched by the heartwarming ideas and reminiscences you have been sharing.”
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She also shared “one in all my favourite images of Phil and me, taken on trip.” The photo shows the pair smiling while riding a moped.
Let’s take a look back at Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas’ decades-long love story, which began with an on-air encounter.
A meeting of two icons
Phil Donohue and Marlo Thomas first met in 1972 on his talk show The Phil Donahue Show.
“I met Phil on the Donahue Present in 1977 – prompt chemistry!” Thomas captioned a video of the episode on her YouTube channel in 2012.
The talk show host later said he found her “the right visitor” and admitted it was “love at first sight” for him.
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A little-known fact is the couple fell in love on Donahue’s talk show. (The Phil Donahue Show)
Thomas, an actor, author and social activist, was best known at the time for the TV series That Girl.
The show cemented her as a feminist icon, as did her project Free to Be… You and Me, which Thomas created to teach her then-young niece Dionne that it is acceptable to reject gender stereotypes.
Sex and the City creator Darren Star was inspired Thomas’ TV show for the opening credits of his iconic ’90s show, telling Entertainment Weekly he was “actually impressed by the That Lady important title.”
Donohue and Thomas first met in 1972 on his talk show The Phil Donahue Show. (The Phil Donahue Show)
Sex and the City’s main character Carrie Bradshaw even referenced Thomas in the show in episode 609 of the series called A Woman’s Right to Shoes.
“After we had been younger, Marlo Thomas sang to us about accepting one another and our variations. However then we obtained older and began singing a completely different tune,” she says in her narration.
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Donahue later told PEOPLE he “was studying about trendy feminism proper alongside the remainder of America.”
The couple were married for 44 years. (Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)
After Thomas’ appearance on the show, it would be another five years until the pair met again, once more on his talk show, and this time their chemistry was obvious to all.
During the segment, when Thomas was promoting her movie Thieves, the two were all smiles, trading compliments and holding hands.
“You’re actually fascinating,” Donahue stated to Thomas.
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“You’re great,” she replied. “I stated it after we had been off the air and I wish to say, you’re loving and beneficiant and you want ladies and it is a pleasure.”
“Whoever is the lady in your life may be very fortunate.”
They would marry three years later.
It would be another five years until they would meet again. (The Phil Donahue Show)
Long distance relationship
They reportedly went out to dinner following Thomas’ second appearance on the show and were long distance at first, with Donahue based in Chicago, where his show filmed, and Thomas in Los Angeles.
Donahue, who had previously been married, told the actress he doubted he’d ever marry again and she said neither was she.
Thomas later wrote in their book What Makes a Marriage Last, released in 2020, ”I used to be the lady who by no means wished any a part of it,” saying their liked grew as a result of they did not really feel stress to tie the knot.
Donahue, who had beforehand been married, informed Thomas he doubted he’d ever marry once more. (Getty)
“Had Phil and I been youthful, we would have been extra impatient and missed one another. However being older – me in my late 30s, Phil in his early 40s – we trusted our hearts and made the trouble,” she wrote.
“For a lot of, love actually is best the second time round, however for me, the primary time has been simply high quality.”
Their 1980 wedding
The pair quickly realised they wanted to be together for the rest of their lives, tying the knot in 1980.
Donahue and Thomas initially kept their marriage out of the spotlight, focusing on their separate careers, until releasing the book in 2020 and co-hosting a podcast about marriage in 2021 called Double Date with Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue.
The pair quickly realised they wanted to be together for the rest of their lives, tying the knot in 1980. (Getty)
“I am born November 21. He is born December 21. And we particularly determined to be married on a 21. So, 5/21!” she told Sunday Morning.
“I consider that marriage is a cushion of life, and it does provide help to stand up and over no matter difficulty it’s and get by it to the opposite aspect.
“And every time you do that for each other, that braid of love and trust and steel just gets tighter and tighter, so that somebody else can’t break it.”
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Donahue’s first marriage was to his school girlfriend, Margaret Cooney, in 1958, shortly after they graduated from the College of Notre Dame.
Donahue opened up about his first marriage in a 2002 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“In your first marriage, were you the traditional workaholic guy who had traditional expectations of your wife?” Winfrey requested him.
“Sure. And I was very ambitious,” he answered. “In the early days of the show, I knew we couldn’t be ponderous – we had to enter screaming.”
Thomas was Donahue’s second wife. He was married to his school sweetheart for 17 years. (Getty)
They had been married for 17 years and welcomed 5 kids, 4 sons, Michael, Kevin, Daniel and James, and one daughter, Mary Rose.
Controversially, the couple break up custody of their kids, with Donahue sustaining custody of their sons and Cooney gaining custody of their daughter, the pair returning to Cooney’s native New Mexico.
The couple’s youngest son, James Donahue, died of an aortic aneurysm at age 51 in 2014, in accordance with an obituary within the Dayton Every day Information.
Thomas later spoke of her relationship with Donahue’s kids, explaining of their e-book she determined to be their good friend quite than take on a parenting function.
She and Donahue had no kids of their very own.
Thomas’ star flip on Mates
Thomas starred on Mates, enjoying Rachel Inexperienced’s mom Sandra. (NBC/Mates)
Donahue would host two iterations of his discuss present The Phil Donahue Present from 1967 till 1996 after which Donahue from 2002 till 2003.
He retired from fulltime work following the cancellation of his present, making appearances on numerous TV and radio reveals.
Thomas profession continued following her marriage to Donahue. Extra just lately she appeared on hit TV collection Mates enjoying Rachel Inexperienced’s glamorous mom Sandra Inexperienced who’s divorcing Rachel’s father.
In a single scene she is passionately kissed by Joey whereas the group sneaks her estranged husband out of their daughter’s party.
Their closing years
Thomas and Donahue had been having fun with a break from their hectic schedules. (Getty)
In Might 2024, Thomas informed PEOPLE she and Donahue had been having fun with a break from their hectic schedules.
“We’re determined to get back to a slower pace, and that means curling up on the couch in front of the TV with a big bowl of popcorn. I like to call it ‘Netflix and Phil,'” she stated.
They celebrated their forty fourth anniversary this yr.
They celebrated their forty fourth anniversary this yr. (Getty)
Talking of their union to PEOPLE the earlier yr, Thomas stated the important thing to their romance was “love, listening and lust.”
“You have to listen and then you’ll know what the other person is really thinking and going through,” she defined.
“You have to love each other. And without lust, you don’t have anything.”
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