Famous Interracial Couples

Probably the most famous interracial couples of all time were the Lovings—Mildred and Richard. Mildred, who was of African-American descent, and Richard, who was of Rappahannock Native American descent were married in June of 1958 but were charged by the state of Virginia under the state’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriages between white and non-white persons. Forced to flee their home state for Washington DC, the Lovings later filed suit to overturn the law with the help of the ACLU. This resulted in the Supreme Court Ruling of 1967 in which the Virginia statute, as well as all state anti-miscegenation laws were struck down as unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Richard Loving died in 1975 at age 41 following an auto accident in which a drunk driver stuck their car; Mildred died in 2008.

The Lovings marriage was far from the earliest interracial marriage, however. Lucille Ball, of I love Lucy Fame, and Desi Arnaz were married in 1940. Desi was a Cuban-born American musician, actor, and television producer, who both produced the I Love Lucy show and costarred in the pilot episode with Lucille. Arnaz, who founded Desilu Productions, pioneered the use of film with his cameraman Karl Freund, enabling TV stations across the USA to see high-quality images of the show. He was also a shrewd businessman, covering the costs of film with his production company because TV network executives would not endorse the technique; he made a fortune on reruns. Lucille divorced Desi in 1960, largely because of stress that Desi was under, which led to problems with alcohol, drugs, and womanizing. Nevertheless, both became very successful in show business and remained good friends.

Over the years, high-profile interracial couples have become common in the music and film worlds. For example, David Bowie married a very attractive supermodel (Iman) shortly after a blind date set up by their hairdresser. David is obviously White and Iman is Somali-born, of African descent. They are still married today (it was Bowie’s second marriage) and still very much in love, with Iman taking charge of her husband’s health after his heart attack in 2004.

Maury Povich and Connie Chung are another famous interracial couple in the TV news/entertainment business. Maury started life as a news reporter and graduated working as a news anchor for several TV stations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He now has his own long-running show simply entitled Maury. He married Connie in 1984. Chung has also had an intensive TV network career, working for all the large networks, including NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. In 1993, she became only the second woman to co-anchor a national news broadcast after Barbara Walters, and went on to do a number of interviews with notorious individuals or celebrities. They live in New York.

Other famous interracial couples include the actor Robert deNiro, who married Grace Hightower in 1997, his second wife. Although divorced shortly after their son, Elliot, was born, they retied the knot in 2004 (the divorce was never finalized). Grace was former flight attendant. The English actor Michael Caine is married to Shakira, a former British fashion model of Indian descent, and Cuba Gooding Jr., is married to Sara Kapfer Gooding. And who can forget the tempestuous relationship between Alex Rodriguez, the Yankee all-rounder baseball player, and actress Kate Hudson?

It just goes to show that that interracial relationships are just as rich as relationships within races.

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