Mia Farrow recalled the moment that Frank Sinatra had her served with divorce papers on the set of Rosemary’s Baby.
Frank took Mia’s virginity and then married her in Las Vegas in 1966, provoking a storm of outrage and ridicule over the fact he was 50 and she was 21.
The following year, their relationship went up in flames after Frank demanded that Mia leave Rosemary’s Baby in the middle of the shoot and she refused.
He retaliated by filing for divorce and having the documents delivered to Mia at work while she filmed the classic Roman Polanski horror film.
Now Mia, 79, has explained the thought process behind Frank’s decision to end their marriage, on an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
Mia Farrow recalled the moment that Frank Sinatra had her served with divorce papers on the set of Rosemary’s Baby; pictured at their wedding reception in 1966
Mia’s father was John Farrow, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning script for the 1956 film Around The World In Eighty Days starring David Niven and Shirley MacLaine.
Meanwhile her mother was Maureen O’Sullivan, who was the Jane to Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan in six movies in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mia became a movie star in her own right with Rosemary’s Baby, playing a pregnant woman increasingly convinced she is carrying the spawn of Satan.
However the making of the picture hit a snag when Frank ‘left me because I wouldn’t leave the movie when he told me to leave it,’ Mia told Drew this week.
‘It had another month. He had some dispute with the head of the studio and he said: “I’m taking my girl out of this,” that kind of thing,’ she added.
According to Kitty Kelley’s biography of Frank, he wanted Mia to quit Rosemary’s Baby so she could play opposite him in his neo-noir picture The Detective.
He tried to get Mia out of her contract by ringing Paramount chief Robert Evans, only to be told: ‘While she’s working for us, she’s Mia Farrow, not Mrs. Sinatra.’
Mia recalled that when Frank instructed her to quit Rosemary’s Baby and go act with him in The Detective, she replied: ‘How can I leave it?’
Mia, who at the age of 79 has now enjoyed over a half century of stardom, is pictured last year attending the Time 100 Gala in New York City
The year after the wedding, their relationship went up in flames after Frank demanded that Mia leave Rosemary’s Baby in the middle of the shoot and she refused; Mia pictured in the film
Mia became a movie star in her own right with Rosemary’s Baby, playing a pregnant woman increasingly convinced she is carrying the spawn of Satan
She noted to Drew that she was ‘the daughter of a director and an actress’ and as a result clove to the mentality that ‘I couldn’t leave a movie.’
Mia added that she ‘was in every shot’ of Rosemary’s Baby and only ‘had one more month’ of shooting left, explaining that she ‘just thought it wouldn’t happen, but it did – his lawyer came on set, served me with divorce papers.’
Mia was Frank’s third wife, following on from his tempestuous failed marriage to Ava Gardner, for whom he had left his first wife Nancy.
Frank first met Mia at the Twentieth Century Fox lot in late 1964 while he was shooting the World War II movie Von Ryan’s Express.
‘He arrived and I thought: “What a super looking man,” and that’s how it began for me,’ Mia recalled of their first meeting.
Others were less enthusiastic about the match, including Frank’s longtime Rat Pack pal Dean Martin, who said: ‘I’ve got Scotch older than Mia Farrow.’
Although Frank and Mia’s romance fell apart after less than two years, they remained friends until his death in 1998 at the age of 82; pictured at their wedding
Mia’s mother Maureen O’Sullivan, herself only four years older than Frank, joked: ‘Marry Mia? If Mr. Sinatra is going to marry anyone, he ought to marry me!’
Frank, whose children Frank Jr. and Nancy were older than Mia, ultimately tied the knot with her at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in 1966 to widespread hilarity.
Upon hearing news of the marriage, Ava Gardner remarked: ‘Ha! I always knew Frank would end up in bed with a little boy.’
Although Frank and Mia’s romance fell apart after less than two years, they remained friends until his death in 1998 at the age of 82.
In recent years, wild theories have been circulating online that Ronan Farrow, the son Mia welcomed with her ex Woody Allen, is actually biologically Frank’s.
Frank’s daughter Tina Sinatra has laughed off the claim, telling Showbiz 411 her father ‘had a vasectomy before’ Ronan would have been conceived.
