Frank Sinatra 'secretly regretted leaving first wife for Ava Gardner'... even though the screen legend saved his career
He was married four times and dated some of the most beautiful women in the world.
But Frank Sinatra secretly wished that he had not left his first wife for Ava Gardner - even though it could have ended his career.
The singer's daughter Nancy told Mo Rocca on CBS Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood that he once told her that if he could go back in time he would have stayed with her mother, who still pines for him today.
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Regrets; Frank Sinatra's daughter claims that he regretted leaving her mother to marry screen siren Ava Gardner (pictured on their wedding day in 1951)
Sinatra hit 'rock bottom' during the divorce and wished he could have his time over again.
Sinatra married first love Nancy Barbato in 1939 - who is still alive and aged 97 - and they had three children before divorcing in 1951.
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He married screen siren Gardner that year but their union only lasted two years because they were both 'high-strung people', Gardner later claimed.
In an interview Nancy described Gardner as 'fantastic' and 'on the fast track', which is where her father wanted to be too.
Nancy told CBS: 'My mum had one great love of her life and that was her dad. To this day she still loves him and adores him.
Happier times: Sinatra married first love Nancy Barbato in 1939 - who is still alive and aged 97 - and they had three children before divorcing in 1951
Proud dad: Frank (pictured in 1968) with his three children Frank Jr, Tina (L) and Nancy (R)
'I asked him once, if he had it to do all over again, would he leave mom for Ava? And he said no.
'I think he hit rock bottom pretty much at that period (the divorce), in terms of work and emotion, and it was tough.
'I never knew anyone, and I still don't know anyone else, who felt things as deeply and took things to heart the way he did.'
Even after the divorce Nancy claimed that Gardner was a 'huge help' to her father, help he would not have received if they had not got married.
She got him the role of Private Angelo Maggio in 'From Here to Eternity', which salvaged his career and won him an Oscar.
Celebrate: Frank Jr, Nancy and Tina Sinatra pictured at the 85th Anniversary of Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California
Nancy said that Gardner was friends with Harry Cohn, the former director of Columbia Pictures, which produced the film and told him: 'You know who should play Maggio, don't you, that son of a b***h ex-husband of mine'.
Her intervention apparently proved decisive and he got the part.
Nancy said that Sinatra, who would have been 100 this year, was a large baby when he was born and that he was delivered with forceps, which scarred his eardrum.
As a result, for his entire life he preferred to be photographed from his right side and not his left.
Rock bottom: Nancy said: 'I think he hit rock bottom pretty much at that period (the divorce), in terms of work and emotion, and it was tough'
Nancy also addressed her father's relationship with Sammy Davis Jr, his fellow Rat Pack singer, and said that he 'suffered terribly' at the hands of some of Sinatra's friends.
Davis' greatest indignation was when John F Kennedy refused to let him perform at his inauguration because he married a white woman.
Nancy said: 'It was sad for daddy because he has one of his best friends who he would take a bullet for and on the other he has the President of the United States saying you can't have him around.
'It was a terrible time'.
Suffering: Nancy also addressed her father's relationship with Sammy Davis Jr, his fellow Rat Pack singer, and said that he 'suffered terribly' at the hands of some of Sinatra's friends
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