Diane Ladd is the matriarch of one of Hollywood’s most famous families.
The Alice actress and her first husband, actor Bruce Dern, were married just shy of a decade in the 1960s and share a daughter, actress Laura Dern. The trio are the only father, mother and child to have each earned an Academy Award nomination for acting.
In 1992, Ladd and Laura became the first mother-daughter pair to earn Oscar nods in the same year — both for their performances in Rambling Rose — and one of only two parent-child duos to be nominated for the same film. Ladd, Bruce and Laura are also the only family to have adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“You know, some say ‘never meet your heroes,’ but I say if you’re really blessed, you get them as your parents,” Laura said while accepting her first Academy Award in 2020. “I share this with my acting heroes, my legends, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern.”
While Ladd’s marriage to Bruce wasn’t the only time she said ‘I do,’ it was the only time she wed a fellow actor. Her second husband was businessman William A. Shea Jr., to whom she was wed from 1969 to 1977. Ladd’s third trip down the aisle came on Feb. 14, 1999, when she wed former PepsiCo CEO Robert Charles Hunter.
But Ladd, who turned 88 in 2023, still maintains a friendship with her ex Bruce — they have even celebrated holidays with their blended families and their respective spouses. Ladd has shared all of her wisdom when it comes to love, marriage and more in a book written with Laura called Honey, Baby, Mine, published in April 2023.
Here is a look back at Diane Ladd’s relationship history.
Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd with daughter Laura Dern in the late 1960s.
Bruce Dern was a Chicago native with a talent for running. But after failing to qualify for the Olympics in 1956, according to the Chicago Tribune, Dern pursued a career in acting. His early gigs included theater productions in Philadelphia and New York City, where he first crossed paths with a young actress named Diane Ladd.
Ladd and Dern met working on an off-Broadway production of Orpheus Descending. The pair wed in 1960, just a few months after meeting.
“Bruce had already been married and divorced when he met me. He came to play Orpheus, and Orpheus descended,” Ladd joked to the Los Angeles Times. “I married Bruce when I was very, very young.”
They welcomed a daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern, in November 1960. Eighteen-month-old Diane Elizabeth died in May 1962 in a drowning accident while in the care of a housekeeper. Five years after Diane’s death, Ladd and Dern welcomed another daughter, Laura, in February 1967 — but by that point, their marriage was struggling to survive.
“It tore us apart,” Ladd told PEOPLE of their loss. The couple divorced in 1969.
Ladd reflected on their split to Parademagazine in 1992. “We suffered the tragedy of our daughter’s death together and thought another child would help us, but we were so bruised,” she told the outlet, according to Deseret News.
Though Ladd and Dern hardly spoke in the years following their divorce, it was their work that allowed the exes to become friends again. They reconnected in 1989 on the set of Wild at Heart, which starred Ladd and Laura, and later filmed Mrs. Munck together. In 2010, Ladd, Dern and Laura became the first family to have three adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the L.A. Times reported.
“As [Diane and I] both look back on it, we beat ourselves up a little bit and say, ‘What the hell was wrong with us that we just didn’t accept this and start this way right at the very beginning?’ ” Dern told PEOPLE in 2001 about his amicable relationship with Ladd. “But it took us a decade to get there.”
William A. Shea Jr.
Ladd married her second husband, William A. Shea Jr., in 1969 — the same year she and Dern divorced. Shea was a businessman whose father, William A. Shea Sr., was the namesake of the New York Mets’ Shea Stadium, The New York Times reported. They split in 1977.
Around that time, Ladd spoke to The New York Times about her first two husbands and the end of those relationships.
“I married two men, Bruce and Bill, neither of which know how to show love, and I come from the South and from a man, my father, who gave me rocking‐chair love,” she said. “My people pass love around, and why I selected two men who needed someone to give love and didn’t know how to give it … I hope I won’t repeat that again.”
Robert Charles Hunter
After her split from Shea, Ladd was still hopeful she would find love in the future, telling The New York Times she would “probably” tie the knot again. That moment came on Valentine’s Day 1999 when Ladd wed former PepsiCo CEO Robert Charles Hunter, according to the L.A. Times.
Their wedding was held at actress Connie Stevens’ Bel Air home; Touched by an Angel’s Della Reese officiated the ceremony. Several celebrity guests were in attendance, including Ladd’s daughter Laura, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, James Coburn, Ed Asner and Beau Bridges. Ladd’s mother, Mary Garey, gave her away, the L.A. Timesreported.
Ladd and Hunter have made red carpet appearances together, including at the premiere of Netflix’s Marriage Story — which earned Laura a Golden Globe and her first Academy Award — and that of Joy — which starred Ladd alongside Jennifer Lawrence.
Ladd has also shared photos with her husband on Instagram, captioning a family photo with Hunter with “my heart” and another calling him the “best date ever.” In 2021, Ladd shared that she and Hunter spent Thanksgiving with their blended family— including Bruce Dern, their daughter Laura and their grandchildren, Ellery and Jaya Harper.
In 2023, Ladd and Laura promoted their book Honey, Baby, Mine, in which Ladd spoke openly about love and divorce. “The [book tour] has been filled with so much quality family time,” Ladd wrote that year in a the caption for a photo of her, Laura and Jaya.
