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Phil Donahue, who died Sunday at 88 after a long illness, was surrounded by his family at the time of his passing.
His wife of 44 years, actor Marlo Thomas, was by his side, along with his sister, his children and grandchildren, the TV talk show host’s family said in a statement to TODAY.com.
Before he wed Thomas in 1980, the TV trailblazer was previously married to his college sweetheart, Margaret Cooney. They welcomed five children before parting ways in 1975.
Read on to learn more about Phil Donahue’s wives and what he has said about their relationships.
Margaret Cooney
Donahue married his college sweetheart, Margaret Cooney, in 1958, shortly after graduating from the University of Notre Dame.
They welcomed four sons, Michael, Kevin, Daniel and James, and one daughter, Mary Rose.
The couple parted ways in 1975 and as part of their divorce settlement, Phil Donahue gained custody of their four boys while Margaret Cooney gained custody of their daughter, The Washington Post reported in a 1980 profile of Donahue.
Following their divorce, Margaret Cooney “returned to her native New Mexico, remarried and disappeared from public view,” according to the Washington Post.
The couple’s youngest son, James Donahue, died of an aortic aneurysm at age 51 in 2014, according to an obituary in the Dayton Daily News.
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 asked the talk show host.
“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.”
Marlo Thomas
Thomas, an actor and activist known for her roles in the sitcom “That Girl” and the children’s special “Free to Be…You and Me,” met Donahue when she appeared on his talk show to promote her 1977 comedy, “Thieves.”
Thomas, 86, shared a clip of the episode when they met, and said in her caption of the YouTube video that they had “instant chemistry.”
“You are really fascinating,” Donahue tells Thomas in the episode, as he takes her hand.
“You are wonderful! I said it when we were off the air, but I want to say you are loving and generous, and you like women, and it’s a pleasure,” she replies. “Whoever is the woman in your life is very lucky.”
They tied the knot in 1980 and were married until Donahue’s death.
Donahue has opened up about his admiration for his trailblazing wife. Her ABC show, “That Girl”, which ran from 1966 to 1971, was one of the first sitcoms to focus on a single woman pursuing her dreams outside the family home.
In a May interview with People, Donahue said that as he hosted his talk show, he “was learning about modern feminism right alongside the rest of America.”
“I just happened to have a closer seat,” he said, “talking personally to some of the greatest feminists of our time: Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Jane Fonda, Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro — and the gorgeous feminist I ended up marrying.”
In 2020, Thomas and Donahue teamed on a book, “What Makes a Marriage Last,” a collection of conversations with famous married couples about their secrets to love and happiness.
As for the secret to her and Donahue’s longterm love, Thomas cited the “three Ls.”
“Love, listening, and lust,” she told People in 2023. “Those are the three Ls. You have to listen and then you’ll know what the other person is really thinking and going through. You have to love each other. And without lust, you don’t have anything.”
In recent years, Thomas often shared sweet messages about their relationship on Instagram.
“I love this shot! Phil and I had only met a few months before on his show in Chicago,” she wrote in July, sharing a throwback photo of her and Donahue embracing. “Then he came to visit me at my house in Beverly Hills. Here we are in my backyard. Sparks continued to fly! They still do! How lucky are we?!”
She also shared a heartfelt Instagram post for their 44th wedding anniversary this May.
“I can’t believe it. It seems more like 20 years,” she captioned a photo of them from their wedding day. “It was a happy day in May and it’s happy still! We are blessed and so grateful we found each other. Here we are May 21, 1980. Happy anniversary my darling.”
Thomas has also opened up about embracing her role as a stepmom to Donahue’s children from his previous marriage.
“From the very first day, I decided that I was not going to try to be a ‘mother’ to Phil’s children in the traditional sense — they already had a mom — but, instead, to be their friend,” she told AARP.org in 2011. “I’m proud to say that the friendships I established with them are as strong today as they were 30 years ago — even stronger.”
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