Raquel Welch's Marriages: Everything She Said About Her Past Relationships

Here's a look back at Raquel Welch's past romances.

While many swooned over the longtime actress and international sex symbol over the course of her lengthy career in the spotlight, Raquel found love several times prior to her death on Feb. 15 at age 82.

The Golden Globe winner married four times between 1959 and 2003. She first tied the knot to high school sweetheart James Welch, who she welcomed her two and only children with. Following their divorce, Raquel wed Patrick Curtis, André Weinfeld and Richard Palmer, respectively.

"I never did get it right. And a lot of men don't like the fact that when we go somewhere I am the one who gets focused on," she told Piers Morgan on Life Stories in November 2015. However, Raquel stood by her decision to commit.

"I don't regret the marriages. I had real feelings for all of them," she continued. "At the time I thought it was love and we could make a great life but it wasn't in the cards." Part of the reason why those relationships didn't work out was because she was "too set in [her] ways," Raquel said.

She continued: "I like what I do, I actually enjoy being me, and I make a very good living at it, and I'm happy. I don't have to have a man." Despite her 2015 feelings of "not being good" at marriage, she didn't rule out the possibility at another.

Keep scrolling for everything to know about the actress' four marriages.

James Welch

Raquel's "first true love" was James "Jim" Welch, who she knew before amassing fame in the late 1960s. In fact, they met when she was 15! In her 2010 memoir Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, the actress recalled the early feelings she had for James when they were young.

In the book, Raquel wrote about her initial interaction with James, revealing that she first took notice of him when she was running to her American government class in school. Not only did she describe him as "gorgeous" with "a cool demeanor," but she admitted that it was love at first sight.

"From the first minute I saw him, I secretly knew that I was destined to have his babies. In my emotionally charged, romantic young mind, I fixated on Jim as 'my one and only,'" reads an excerpt from the memoir, per ABC News.

Raquel and James' love story continued throughout high school. He was on the football team, she was a cheerleader. He'd pick her up in the morning, they'd drive to school together. "My schoolgirl crush on Jim lulled me into believing that he was the man of my dreams," Raquel wrote.

But they were also very different. Raquel was very chatty and James did not talk as much. He drank beer, she "never touched the stuff," she wrote in her book. She graduated with honors and a college scholarship, and he dropped out of high school and went off to Peru on a tuna clipper.

After breaking up for a short while, Raquel and James rekindled their relationship when he returned home. She dropped out of college and the two tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1959. James' parents approved of their marriage, while Raquel's were less than thrilled.

That same year, they had their first child together, son Damon. Two years later, they welcomed their second child, a daughter named Latanne "Tahnee" Welch. Raquel was 19 years old when she had her first, which she described as a "painfully young age" that in part led to their divorce in 1964.

Another factor that led to their split was the actress' career ambitions combined with James' "own ideas." Despite their breakup, Raquel famously kept his last name.

Patrick Curtis

Following Raquel's split from James, she started a relationship with producer Patrick Curtis. The two worked on 1965's A Swingin' Summer together, a gig that marked the actress' first feature film and debut singing role.

Soon after, Raquel's film One Million Years B.C. was released in 1966, which is largely regarded as her breakout role. The following year, she wed Patrick at Paris' City Hall in February 1967.

Their relationship was brief, marking the shortest of Raquel's four marriages. The couple divorced in 1972. Patrick died at the age of 83 in November 2022, less than a year before Raquel's passing in February 2023.

André Weinfeld

While in Paris, Raquel met French screenwriter André Weinfeld in 1977. Following their meeting, they collaborated on several projects together. Their first was From Raquel With Love, a 1980 variety show TV special that featured Mickey Rooney and the actress as its star.

That same year, they tied the knot in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. "Robert Mitchum happened to be at the hotel, and he came by the reception," Raquel shared.

During their time together, André co-produced Broadway's Woman of the Year, which opened on Broadway in 1981. It originally starred Lauren Bacall as its lead, who was eventually replaced by Raquel. He also went on to produce all of Raquel's National Tour and concerts, according to his LinkedIn.

Ten years later, the married couple split in 1990.

Richard Palmer

Raquel met restaurateur Richard Palmer at a party in 1996. The Bronx native began his kitchen career serving up pizzas in New York before transitioning his business into one filled with a fortune in California.

According to a New York Post article profiling Richard in 2000, he owned two in Beverly Hills, one in Encino and one in Orange — with a Bloomfield location (just outside Denver, Colorado) in the works at the time. His secret to success was keeping the New York style at the heart of his recipes.

As for Raquel (whom he married in 1996), he described her as "a living legend" and happily explained the perks of being her husband. "I get great seats at the fights. You go wherever you want to go. It's great," he joked.

They separated in 2003 and later divorced.