Dinah shore and burt reynolds baby

Burt Reynolds knew that Dinah Shore let him win at tennis — and that only made him love her more. “Dinah was a much better tennis player than me, but she would fake not being good and let me win sometimes,” Burt told Closer in 2017. “She was incredibly important to me. We were the best of friends and very close throughout her life.”

Burt met the singer and actress-turned-TV host when he appeared on her first talk show, Dinah’s Place, in 1970. Despite a 19-year age gap, he was instantly smitten and spontaneously invited her to spend the weekend with him in Palm Springs. Dinah, then 53 and twice divorced, declined, but they met up a little while later in Chicago. “A human relationship has nothing to do with chronology. It has to do with chemistry,” said Dinah, who felt the connection, too. “A man is a man is a man. And an attraction is an attraction.”

Over the next four years, the pair enjoyed a sweet, low-key romance and what Dinah called a “comfortable, ordinary life” together. They played a lot of tennis and golf. “I always wanted a jock for a lover,” Burt joked. They bonded over their shared Southern upbringing and career paths.

Burt’s stardom was just taking off, and Dinah, who had been one of the most popular female recording artists of the 1940s, had excellent insight. “She had experienced all that I was just going through, and she gave me some great advice,” recalled Burt. “I always took her advice, whether I believed it or not — and in the end, she was always right.”

Once the press got wind of their relationship, Burt and Dinah became tabloid fodder, but they tried to ignore it. “There was so much speculation about us. I never could understand the preoccupation with it,” admitted Dinah, who said that she and Burt made a pact not to read the things printed about them. “At least 90 percent of it wasn’t true.”

Eventually, it became obvious that they were at different places in their lives. Dinah had already raised two children with her ex-husband, actor and stuntman George Montgomery, whom she divorced in 1963 after nearly two decades of marriage. Burt, meanwhile, was divorced from Laugh-In star Judy Carne and looking to start a family. “We couldn’t have been more in love. But there was a snag. Dinah wouldn’t marry me,” said Burt. “She said it was because she couldn’t give me children, and it’s true I wanted them badly. But we could have adopted.”

Though Dinah shared his dream of building a house in Hawaii, she felt that there had to be an end date on their relationship. “I don’t want to grow old in his arms,” she reportedly told a friend.

Dinah never remarried, but Burt went on to wed Loni Anderson in 1988, and they adopted the child he longed for, son Quinton, 33.

But the actor never forgot Dinah and often said she had been the love of his life. They remained friends until her death in 1994. “My biggest regret is parting ways with her; it was so stupid of me,” said Burt before his passing in 2018. “We were soulmates. … I was so lucky to have had someone like that in my life. She was so young of heart and spirit in every way.”

For more on this story, pick up the latest issue of Closer magazine, on newsstands now. 

He said goodbye to the love of his life in 1994 and regretted it every day since ..

Every February, Burt Reynold an elderly man, grey and stooping, walked alone through Forest Lawns Cemetery, Palm Springs, California, and placed a wreath of roses on the grave of the woman he loved and lost.

Burt Reynolds outlived the love of his life, Dinah Shore by 24 years until his death in September of 2018, but he never forgot his true love.

They had met in 1970 when Burt Reynolds was 35 and Hollywood's most sought-after leading man. She was 53, now the grande dame of TV talk shows, cool, aloof and still hauntingly beautiful. Reynolds had burst into movies from college football and his dark macho looks made him the star of half a dozen big-earning Westerns and the dream lover of millions of women fans.

He had married and divorced TV Laugh-In star Judy Carne, and had well publicised affairs with Sally Field, Raquel Welch and tennis star Chris Evert. He was living with Japanese actress Miko Mayama and Hollywood rumour was that they would get married. But meeting Dinah Shore, as a guest on her TV chat-show, changed all that. "I had never met her before but out of the blue I asked her to come to Palm Springs for the weekend. She said no, but I knew it was the beginning of the most special relationship of my life.

"I'd never met anyone like her. I realised there was a big age gap between us but it didn't make the slightest difference. I was already in love with her."

"Being with Dinah opened every Hollywood door," Reynolds said. "I got to know Sinatra, Jack Benny, Edward G. Robinson, Groucho Marx, Peggy Lee, Orson Welles. Everyone knew Dinah and they all loved her."

After four years together, the happiness and closeness of Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore had become Hollywood legend. "We dreamed of building a house in Hawaii. We couldn't have been more in love. But there was a snag. Dinah wouldn't marry me.

"She said it was because she couldn't give me children and it's true I wanted them badly. But we could have adopted. I knew it was more than that.

"Even so, Dinah had everything I ever wanted in a woman. And when I told her: 'I want to be with you for the rest of my life,' I really meant it. And yet a year later he was telling friends: "Breaking up with Dinah is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I knew it was time to get married or move on, and she refused to marry me."

During a tearful confrontation in 1975, Reynolds told Dinah Shore: "I will love you all my life. The hardest part is that I'm falling deeper in love with you every moment." Then he turned and walked away.

Reynolds cried for days afterwards. "A piece of me was lost. I missed the closeness and the friendship and to be truthful I've never stopped missing it ever since. Every time I picked up the phone I wanted to call her".

Burt Reynolds' desire for children made him marry glamorous Loni Anderson. They had a son, Quinton, but the marriage was soon in trouble and ended in a $10 million divorce.

Alone again, Burt Reynolds rang Dinah Shore hoping to get together again. But she refused to see him despite his pleading.

Finally, from a friend, he discovered her tragic secret — the reason why she had refused to marry him and why she now had broken off the relationship for good. Dinah Shore had terminal cancer. She died in 1994.

He never got to say goodbye to Dinah so for the rest of his life Burt would visit her grave, and now maybe they are together again...

How much older was Dinah Shore than Burt Reynolds?

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