For six successful years, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz portrayed a loving couple on the hit TV show, I Love Lucy.
However, not all aspects of their real-life relationship made it onto the screen.
It is no secret that Arnaz cheated on Ball, a fact he openly admitted.
But now, an insider from Hollywood has made a bold claim about the extent of Arnaz's infidelity.
Scott Bowers, an escort-to-the-stars, alleged that he arranged encounters for Arnaz with two or three women every week.
Let's delve into this scandalous revelation and explore the link between Bowers, the stars, and the tumultuous relationship of Arnaz and Ball.
Before the fame and success of I Love Lucy, Ball and Arnaz were already a couple.
They tied the knot in 1940 after meeting on the film Too Many Girls.
Although they faced marital issues early on, including Ball filing for divorce, they managed to reconcile and continue their marriage.
Together, they welcomed two children, Lucie Arnaz in 1951 and Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1953.
In 1951, I Love Lucy premiered, produced by the couple's own company, Desilu Productions.
According to their daughter Lucie, the sitcom was an attempt to salvage their relationship.
“They did the show so they could be together because my dad was always on the road and they never saw each other,” she revealed.
“So my parents thought, ‘Well, this is going to save our marriage, and we can have a family.'”
Scott Bowers, a former gas station attendant turned escort and pimp for Hollywood stars, claimed to have facilitated numerous secret s**ual relationships for various celebrities.
His clients included Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, and, of course, Desi Arnaz.
Bowers shared these scandalous stories in his 2012 book, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret s** Lives of the Stars, which later inspired the 2017 documentary, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.
According to Bowers, during the height of I Love Lucy's popularity, he arranged encounters for Arnaz with two or three women every week.
He described Arnaz's preferences as any attractive woman who was willing to engage in a casual encounter.
Bowers even claimed that Lucille Ball confronted him about his involvement in her husband's affairs.
At a party, she allegedly approached him and exclaimed, “How dare you pimp for Desi!”
The tabloid Confidential exposed Arnaz's infidelity in 1955.
The article, titled “Does Desi Really Love Lucy?,” boldly proclaimed his philandering ways.
It detailed an incident at the Beverly Hills Hotel where a friend of Arnaz's ordered two escorts.
When confronted by Ball with the article, Arnaz reportedly responded by saying, “What's she upset about?
I don't take out other broads.
I just take out hookers.”
Arnaz himself acknowledged his extramarital affairs in his memoir, A Book, published in 1977.
He admitted to cheating on Ball and claimed that she, too, had been unfaithful.
Despite their turbulent relationship, Ball and Arnaz managed to have a better dynamic after their divorce in 1960.
Their daughter, Lucie, revealed that they had a more amicable relationship as ex-spouses than they did as a married couple.
Their divorce was characterized by kindness, never speaking ill of each other in front of their children, and maintaining a friendship until their respective deaths.
Following their divorce, both Ball and Arnaz remarried.
Arnaz wed Edith Mack Hirsch in 1963, remaining married until her passing in 1985.
Arnaz himself passed away a year later in 1986.
Ball married Gary Morton in 1961, and they stayed together until her death in 1989.
This scandalous revelation about Desi Arnaz's infidelity sheds new light on the complex and tumultuous relationship between him and Lucille Ball.
It serves as a reminder that even in the glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood, the truth behind closed doors was far from perfect.
