Rita Hayworth's 5 Spouses: From Orson Welles to Prince Aly Khan
Rita Hayworth's 5 Spouses: From Orson Welles to Prince Aly Khan
Audrey SchmidtSat, March 7, 2026 at 11:30 AM UTC
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Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles prior to their wedding on September 7, 1943 in Santa Monica, California ; Rita Hayworth and James Hill in 1958 in London, UK.Credit: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty ; Ullstein bild via Getty
Rita Hayworth, “The Love Goddess,” was married five times before her death in 1987.
In the beginning of her career, in 1936, she met her first husband and manager, Edward Judson. He helped reshape Hayworth’s image and propelled her career, helping to secure her breakout role in You'll Never Get Rich, alongside Fred Astaire.
Hayworth went on to star in other films including Blood and Sand and The Strawberry Blonde while married to Judson. When she filed for divorce from him in 1942, she added a complaint of cruelty.
Hayworth went on to marry four more times to husbands Orson Welles, Prince Aly Khan, Dick Haymes and James Hill. She welcomed a daughter named Rebecca with Welles and a daughter named Princess Yasmin with Khan.
“When I look back on my marriages, or the breakups, sure I know the pain I went through, but that’s part of life and it has its own value,” Hayworth once said.
Here is everything to know about Rita Hayworth’s five husbands.
Edward Judson
Rita Hayworth with her first husband Edward C Judson, circa 1939.Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty
Hayworth met salesman and promoter Judson in 1936 while she was pursuing an acting career in California. The two married in Las Vegas the following year when Hayworth was 18 years old and Judson was more than twice her age.
He served as Hayworth’s manager and at his recommendation, the star — who was born Margarita Carmen Cansino — changed her stage name to Rita Hayworth (her mother’s maiden name) and underwent a drastic makeover which included dying her hair auburn and undergoing electrolysis treatments to push her hairline back, according to Susan Ware's Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary.
Judson catapulted Hayworth’s career, helping her land a deal with Columbia Pictures and a role in Only Angels Have Wings, a catalyst for future blockbuster parts including the 1946 film Gilda, in which she played the titular role.
Despite a flourishing career, Hayworth’s marriage was falling apart. In Barbara Leaming’s 1989 biography of Hayworth titled If This Was Happiness, she wrote that Judson encouraged Hayworth to have sex with powerful men including Columbia executive Harry Cohn, to further her career.
When Hayworth reportedly refused, it was the onset of a decades-long battle between her and the mogul.
“I married him for love, but he married me for an investment,” she claimed of Judson. “For five years he treated me as if I had no mind or soul of my own.”
Hayworth filed for divorce in 1942 with a complaint of cruelty.
Orson Welles
Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles on October 15, 1946 in Los Angeles, California.Credit: Bettmann/Getty
In 1942, the same year Hayworth filed for divorce from Judson, she met her soon-to-be second husband, filmmaker Welles.
He was shooting a film in Brazil when he first laid eyes on Hayworth in her iconic pin-up photo for Life magazine. Upon his return to the United States, he pursued the actress.
“I saw that fabulous still in Life magazine,” Welles told Leaming. “Where she’s on her knees in bed. And that’s when I decided: 'When I come back, that’s what I’m going to do!' ”
On Sept. 7, 1943, Hayworth — who was starring in the musical Cover Girl at the time — took her lunch break and went to the Santa Monica Courthouse with Welles to get married.
“I’m going to marry Orson Welles!” she proclaimed on set earlier that morning.
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One year after tying the knot, the couple welcomed a daughter, Rebecca. However, their marriage had already begun deteriorating after Welles was involved in several alleged infidelities.
By March 1946, the couple had separated, with the mother of one and her daughter living on their own. Hayworth filed for divorce and it was finalized in 1948.
Prince Aly Khan
Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan on June 15th, 1949 in London, UK.Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty
In 1948, while on vacation in Europe, Hayworth attended a charity ball at the Eiffel Tower where she gave a French speech on behalf of poor children, catching the eye of Khan who was in attendance.
While he was married at the time, the prince pursued Hayworth with romantic gestures including filling her suites with flowers and buying a house near her Brentwood mansion to spend time with her. The two engaged in an affair which was condemned around the world by various organizations, including the Vatican, per Leaming.
After legally ending their previous marriages, Khan and Hayworth married on May 27, 1949, at the town hall in Vallauris. The mayor presided over the ceremony and thousands gathered in the streets to catch a glimpse of the new royal couple as they departed the venue.
Hayworth was secretly pregnant at the time of their wedding, and seven months after becoming husband and wife, the pair welcomed their daughter, Princess Yasmin, on Dec. 18, 1949.
Hayworth struggled to adapt to her new life as a royal in Europe, which consisted of attending high society events with her husband. Coupled with Khan's alleged extramarital affairs, it led Hayworth to take her daughters and move back to America in 1951. She filed for divorce upon her return, on the grounds of "extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature."
Yasmin remembers her parents' relationship differently. “My earliest memories of my mother and father together were when I was 8 or 9,” she wrote for PEOPLE in June 1987, adding, “Theirs was a truly good relationship.”
While the divorce was granted in 1953, Hayworth and Khan were embroiled in a lengthy custody battle until his death in a car accident in 1960.
Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes and Rita Hayworth.Credit: Bettmann/Getty
After Hayworth and Khan called it quits, the Miss Sadie Thompson star engaged in a relationship with Argentine singer, songwriter and actor, Haymes. The couple tied the knot in 1953 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, but trouble plagued them early on.
The newlyweds were entangled in a custody battle with Hayworth’s ex, and Haymes, who lost American citizenship rights after applying for an exemption from the World War II draft as an Argentinian citizen, was facing deportation and a mountain of debt.
Problems between the pair continued to escalate over the course of their marriage. While out drinking one night in 1955, Haymes struck Hayworth in the face at the Cocoanut Grove, leaving her with a black eye.
“I could hardly believe I could be a princess one minute and be treated like that the next,” she told fellow actress June Allyson, per Leaming.
Hayworth fled to New York and filed for divorce from Haymes in 1955.
James Hill
Rita Hayworth and James Hill on July 29th, 1958 in London, UK.Credit: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty
Hayworth met her fifth and final husband, film producer Hill, when she was working on the 1958 drama, Separate Tables. Produced by Hill, the movie also featured Burt Lancaster and David Niven and was one of the last big films she starred in during her career.
After a four-month romance, the couple tied the knot at her Beverly Hills home and went on to work together again in The Happy Thieves, which was released in 1962.
According to Hill’s 1983 book, Rita Hayworth: A Memoir, tension mounted in their marriage as he wanted her to continue working in show business while she was ready to retire. When Hayworth filed for divorce she claimed "extreme mental cruelty" which was later corroborated by Charlton Heston's autobiography.
Hayworth and Hill divorced in 1961.
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