Diane Ladd’s Relationship History: Everything to Know About the Late Actress’ Husbands

Diane Ladd was an award-winning actress, a cherished wife and a matriarch to one of the most prominent families in Hollywood.

Ladd, whose daughter is actress Laura Dern, died on Nov. 3, 2025. She was 89 years old.

“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Calif.,” Dern said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Nov. 3.

“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she added. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Ladd welcomed Laura with her first husband, actor Bruce Dern, while they were married from 1960 to 1969. The three made history, as they became the only father, mother and child to have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting.

Ladd and Laura continued breaking down barriers when they both earned an Oscar nomination the same year in 1992. Ladd, Laura and Bruce also all have adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“You know, some say ‘never meet your heroes,’ but I say if you’re really blessed, you get them as your parents,” Laura said while accepting her first Academy Award in 2020. “I share this with my acting heroes, my legends, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern.”

While Ladd’s marriage to Bruce wasn’t the only time she said “I do,” it was the only time she wed a fellow actor. Her second husband was businessman William A. Shea Jr., to whom she was wed from 1969 to 1977. Ladd’s third trip down the aisle came on Feb. 14, 1999, when she wed former PepsiCo CEO Robert Charles Hunter.

Ladd and Hunter remained married until his death in July 2025. Before her death, she remained close friends with Bruce and went on to celebrate holidays with their respective spouses.

Here is a look back at Diane Ladd’s relationship history.

Bruce Dern

Bruce was a Chicago native with a talent for running, but after failing to qualify for the Olympics in 1956, he pursued a career in acting. His early gigs included theater productions in Philadelphia and New York City, where he first crossed paths with a young actress named Diane Ladd.

Ladd and Bruce met while working on an off-Broadway production of Orpheus Descending. The pair wed in 1960, just a few months after meeting.

“Bruce had already been married and divorced when he met me. He came to play Orpheus, and Orpheus descended,” Ladd joked to the Los Angeles Times. “I married Bruce when I was very, very young.”

They welcomed a daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern, in November 1960. When she was 18 months old in May 1962, she died in a drowning accident.

Five years after Diane’s death, Ladd and Bruce welcomed another daughter, Laura, in February 1967 — but by that point, their marriage was struggling to survive. “It tore us apart,” Ladd told PEOPLE of their loss. The couple divorced in 1969.

Ladd reflected on their split to Parade magazine in 1992. “We suffered the tragedy of our daughter’s death together and thought another child would help us, but we were so bruised,” she told the outlet, according to Deseret News.

Though Ladd and Dern hardly spoke in the years following their divorce, it was their work that allowed the exes to become friends again. They reconnected in 1989 on the set of Wild at Heart, which starred Ladd and Laura, and later filmed Mrs. Munck together.

In 2010, Ladd, Bruce and Laura became the first family to have three adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the L.A. Times reported.

“As [Diane and I] both look back on it, we beat ourselves up a little bit and say, ‘What the hell was wrong with us that we just didn’t accept this and start this way right at the very beginning?’ ” Bruce told PEOPLE in 2001 about his amicable relationship with Ladd. “But it took us a decade to get there.”

William A. Shea Jr.

Ladd married her second husband, William A. Shea Jr., in 1969 — the same year she and Bruce divorced.

Shea was a businessman whose father, William A. Shea Sr., was the namesake of the New York Mets’ Shea Stadium, The New York Times reported. They split in 1977.

Around that time, Ladd spoke to The New York Times about her first two husbands and the end of those relationships.

“I married two men, Bruce and Bill, neither of which know how to show love, and I come from the South and from a man, my father, who gave me rocking‐chair love,” she said.

Ladd continued, “My people pass love around, and why I selected two men who needed someone to give love and didn’t know how to give it … I hope I won’t repeat that again.”

Robert Charles Hunter

After her split from Shea, Ladd was still hopeful she would find love in the future, telling The New York Times she would “probably” tie the knot again. That moment came on Valentine’s Day 1999 when Ladd wed former PepsiCo CEO Hunter, according to the L.A. Times.

Their wedding was held at actress Connie Stevens’ Bel Air home; Touched by an Angel’s Della Reese officiated the ceremony. Several celebrity guests were in attendance, including Laura, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, James Coburn, Ed Asner and Beau Bridges. Ladd’s mother, Mary Garey, gave her away, the L.A. Times reported.

Ladd and Hunter made several red carpet appearances together, including at the premiere of Netflix’s Marriage Story — which earned Laura a Golden Globe and her first Academy Award — and that of Joy — which starred Ladd alongside Jennifer Lawrence.

Ladd also posted about her husband on Instagram, captioning a photo of Hunter with “my heart” and another calling him the “best date ever.” In 2021, Ladd shared that she and Hunter spent Thanksgiving with their blended family — including Bruce, Laura and their grandchildren, Ellery and Jaya Harper.

Hunter died on July 31, 2025. He was 77 years old. Ladd mourned her husband’s death by posting a screenshot from The Hollywood Reporter story that announced the news.