Dyan Cannon was spotted out in Brentwood, California, grabbing lunch with a pal on Tuesday, December 12. The appearance came just days after the Academy Award nominee opened up about her tumultuous marriage to Cary Grant.
“About four months ago, I was going through my safe, and I found some notes from him that were so adorable, and made me understand why I fell in love with him,” Dyan, 86, told Page Six in an interview published on December 6.
But as the Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice star wrote in her 2011 memoir, Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant, their marriage saw its fair share of hardships. Dyan recalled some of the “fundamental problems” they experienced during their relationship.
“I never knew what was going to set him off next, and when he wasn’t at work he trailed me around the house, listing my shortcomings,” she wrote. “I didn’t place a coaster under my water glass. I parked my car in the driveway crooked. I shouldn’t be so friendly to the postman because he might get the wrong idea, or to the maid because it was good to keep a distance.”
Dyan admitted that there were several other instances of Cary’s criticism that she did not include in the book.
“The thing that was really challenging for me in writing the book was what to say and what not to say,” the Ally McBeal alum shared. “Cary had so many people who loved him and I didn’t want to take the stars out of their eyes … [mine] disappeared for a while, but, curiously, the stars are back in my eyes again.”
Cary, who was born Archibald Alec Leach in 1904, is the subject of the four-part miniseries Archie, now streaming on ITVX and BritBox. The Blonde Venus actor was married to Dyan from 1965 to 1968, and they welcomed one daughter together, Jennifer Grant.
“I think the birth of Jennifer brought him great love,” the film icon’s fifth wife, Barbara Jaynes, told Closer in November 2022. “I think that the relationship we had brought him peace as well. Most of the people who knew him well said he seemed a much happier person in the later part of his life.”
Cary died at age 82 on November 29, 1986. Jennifer, 57, carried on his legacy with a successful acting career of her own.
“Jennifer is my greatest production,” Cary once said of his only child. “She’s the most winsome, captivating girl I’ve ever known, and I’ve known quite a few. We have an honest relationship. We level with each other.”