Ronald and Nancy Reagan's relationship outlasted parenthood, the presidency,
a nearly fatal assassination attempt, and an Alzheimer's diagnosis. But the besotted
couple managed to remain crazy about each other till the last moments of their lives.
Before Nancy Davis, Ronald Reagan had found love with another actress
with whom he shared the screen: Jane Wyman. Ronald and Wyman met when they
were cast in the movie Brother Rat and a Baby and eventually started dating.
"Claire, you look wonderful." "Thank you."
Wyman had already been divorced twice before marrying Reagan. During their marriage,
the couple had three children together:
Christine – who died after birth, Maureen, and their adopted son Michael.
The pair had serious marital issues from the start. Wyman even attempted suicide
when Reagan was reluctant to propose to her out of fear that things were moving
too fast. They married in 1940. But during their marriage, Wyman felt Regan was absent from their
relationship and actually found him extremely irritating. In 1948, she filed for divorce.
After Ronald Reagan's first divorce he fell in love with a young Nancy Davis. In 1951,
Reagan was the president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time of peak McCarthyism.
"The Guild will not be engaged in politics, nor will there be politics in the Guild."
During this era, Hollywood was blacklisting actors, screenwriters,
and others who were thought to be communist sympathizers, and an actress named Nancy Davis
was on that list. But no, this wasn't the future first lady Nancy Davis — this Nancy
was completely unrelated to Reagan's future wife, but the name's purported association
with communism did cause the other Nancy Davis trouble when looking for work.
"Nancy Davis as the woman who was compelled to submit to the brain's satanic vibrations of evil."
Frustrated, Davis contacted the president of the Screen Actors Guild in an effort to
get the name confusion straightened out so she could earn a living. That person
happened to be Ronald Reagan. The two fell in love and the rest is history.
Reagan claimed that Nancy saved him from his loneliness. The two were married in March 1952,
and seven months later, she gave birth to their daughter Patricia "Patti" Reagan.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan shared the big screen just once — in 1957's Hellcats
of the Navy. The film is based on the non-fiction book Hellcats of
the Sea and follows World War I submarine commander Casey Abbott, played by Reagan,
who leaves behind nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair, played by Nancy, for a mission in the Pacific.
The Department of Defense endorsed the film, which didn't receive particularly
good reviews. Nevertheless, Rebecca Keegan noted in her 2016 Chicago Tribune piece that:
"Nancy spends most of the movie in a starched white nurse's uniform,
her character pining chastely after the commander. Their scenes together
are interesting not because of any crackerjack dialogue but because they
provide a preview of what would become an iconic marriage through the decades."
Reagan starred in three more films, the last being 1964's The Killers. For her part,
Nancy appeared in one more film, 1958's Crash Landing. Later that same year,
the couple welcomed their newborn son, Ronald "Ron" Reagan.
After Ron Jr. was born in 1958, Nancy decided to be a full-time mother and housewife. His father,
on the other hand, continued his acting career with appearances on General Electric Theater until
he decided to turn to politics in the mid-1960s. In 1966, Reagan ran for California governor and
won the election; he ran for reelection in 1970 and won again. In the 1976 presidential election,
Ronald attempted to become the Republican nominee by challenging the incumbent president,
Gerald Ford, but lost the nomination. In 1980, however, he secured the Republican nomination
and beat then-President Jimmy Carter in the general election. In January 1981,
Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States.
When Reagan entered the White House, his friend Charlton Heston said,
"[Theirs was] the greatest love affair in the history of the American Presidency."
Nancy and Ronald Reagan managed to keep their love alive while he was busy governing an entire
nation, and the two were known to leave love notes everywhere throughout the White House.
But in March 1981, Nancy's world was nearly torn apart when her husband survived an assassination
attempt. After this, Nancy tried her hardest to make sure her husband remained healthy.
"That was when he said, 'Honey, I forgot to duck.'"
Even though Ronald and Nancy Reagan had an unbridled love for one another,
the rest of the family often felt alienated and dysfunctional. For starters,
the couple's children had no idea that they had half-siblings from Reagan's first marriage until
Michael came to live with the Reagans. On top of that, at first, the Reagan children didn't
know their relationship to Maureen until she introduced herself to Patti as her half-sister.
Regardless of that odd family drama, the children often saw Ronald Reagan as a
distant father. On one occasion, he reportedly didn't even recognize his own son, Michael,
at his graduation after he gave a commencement speech. Patti also accused her mother of
being abusive and believed that her parents' relationship was all about them. As parents,
the Reagans apparently didn't pay much attention to their own children.
Patti Davis summed up the family dynamic in 1991, saying:
“The mark of this family is that everybody
is distanced from everybody else. There was no glue in this family.”
After Ronald Reagan finished his eight-year term as president,
he and Nancy moved back to California, where they began constructing the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Museum, and Nancy wrote an autobiography. Tragically, in 1994,
Ronald was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and for the remaining 10 years of his life,
Nancy took care of him. The former president wrote in a letter to the American people,
"I wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience."
"What do you say about someone who gives your life meaning? What
do you say about someone who's always there with support and understanding?"
During President Reagan's retirement, he tried his best to mend the relationships
with his children. Sadly, in 2001, he was faced with the death of his daughter,
Maureen, after a five year battle with cancer. When Reagan died on June 5, 2004,
he was surrounded by his children and his beloved wife, Nancy. Nancy would go
on to live for another 12 years before dying on March 6, 2016. Though Ronald and Nancy Reagan's
life together might've not been perfect, it was filled with love and passion until the very end.