Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball divorced in 1960. According to Biography, that was followed by his sale of his share of their production company, Desilu. He ultimately remarried, as did Ball.
Their daughter, Lucie, worked with Amy Poehler on her documentary “Lucy and Desi,” and she shared some intimate details of the last days of her father’s life (via Insider). Lucie recalled that it wasn’t long after he was diagnosed with lung cancer that she called her mother and said, “I think you should talk to him, don’t know if he’s going to be awake much longer. So, if you want to say anything at all, now’s a good time.”
Lucie held the phone for her father, and she revealed her mother’s last words to him: “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you… I love you.” Arnaz replied, “I love you, too, honey.”
The last time they spoke was on November 30, 1986 — their wedding anniversary. Arnaz died a few days later, on December 2. Ball had come to visit about a month before that, around the time that Arnaz had declined to undergo any more cancer treatments. Lucie recalled seeing them sitting together, watching episodes of “I Love Lucy” that she had put on for them. “I could hear them laughing together,” Lucie recalled. “And then she left, she went home. And she told me she cried all the way home.”
