The Impact of Mary Tyler Moore’s Marriages: From Launching ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ to Building a Legacy of Activism

Mary Tyler Moore will forever be known as one of classic TV’s most trailblazing women. The star, who died at 80 in 2017, brought humor, smarts and style to her iconic roles as Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and she became a major source of inspiration to women throughout the ’60s, ’70s and beyond.

Given the relatability she brought to the small screen, many fans felt a personal connection to Moore and became interested in her life off-camera. The star was married three times, and her marriages helped inform her creative work and advocacy. Read on to learn all about the charming TV star’s love life.

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Mary Tyler Moore’s first marriage—and the tragedy that came from it

In 1955, when she was just 18, Mary Tyler Moore married her next-door neighbor, Richard Meeker, a salesman 10 years her senior. Their son, Richard Jr., was born the next year. Moore and Meeker divorced in 1962, right as the actress’ star was rising thanks to her breakthrough role as Dick Van Dyke’s wife on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Moore and Meeker’s short-lived marriage is forever marked by tragedy, as Richard Jr. battled personal demons and died of an accidental gunshot wound to the head at age 24 in 1980. This traumatic loss had a major impact on Moore, and she expressed regret at how her newfound fame kept her from giving her only child the attention he needed, writing in her memoir, “There is no question about it. By the time Richie was 5, I had already let him down. When he needed me the most, I was busier and even more self-concerned than I had been when he was an impressionable infant.”

How the star’s second marriage led to ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’

Following her divorce from Richard Meeker in 1962, Mary Tyler Moore married TV executive Grant Tinker. Their marriage proved pivotal to her career, as in 1969, they cofounded their production company, MTM Enterprises. With MTM, Moore became one of the first women to take on such a powerful role within TV production, and the company produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show as well as other popular sitcoms like The Bob Newhart Show and WKRP in Cincinnati and various Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoffs.

After over a decade of personal and professional involvement, Moore and Tinker divorced in 1981. Tinker died at 90 in 2016. Following his passing, the actress issued a heartfelt statement calling her ex-husband her “professional mentor” and saying, “I’m forever grateful for and proud of what we achieved together with the creation of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and founding of MTM Enterprises . . . Grant was a brilliant, driven executive who uniquely understood that the secret to great TV content was freedom for its creators and performing artists. This was manifest in his ‘first be best and then be first’ approach.”

In the early ’80s, following her divorce, Moore was linked to fellow actors Steve Martin and Warren Beatty and dated Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Mary Tyler Moore’s 33 years of wedded bliss with Robert Levine

Mary Tyler Moore and her third husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine, had a meet-cute in 1982 when Dr. Levine, a cardiologist, made a house call to treat Moore’s mother. Sparks flew, and they married the next year. Moore was 18 years older than Levine, but their age difference had no impact on the strength of their relationship, and they remained happily married until she died in 2017.

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Moore had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1969, and Levine was by her side as she became an activist for finding a cure to the disease. Following her passing, Levine established the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, an organization dedicated to fighting diabetes-related vision loss, a condition that Moore suffered from, in 2018.

Moore credited Levine with always being able to lift her mood, saying, “My husband has always been very good at getting me out of myself when I get down and depressed and all of that—never seriously. So, I am basically a very happy person.”

Reflecting on their 33 years of marriage in a recent Woman’s World interview, Levine reflected fondly on Moore’s “joyfulness” and called her an “extraordinary icon of independence,” noting, “She was always completely bolt upright and facing the world in an optimistic way, and her style was an authentic reflection of that.”

Eight years after her death, Mary Tyler Moore is still deeply missed, but her husband has dedicated himself to carrying on her legacy through his philanthropic work.