‘He loved women’
Robin Williams’ first wife Valerie opens up about his infidelities
Robin Williams’ first wife Valerie Velardi allowed the late comedian’s infidelity during their marriage.
Velardi, who was married to Williams from 1978 to 1988, opened up about the Good Will
Hunting star for the first time since his death in new HBO documentary Come Inside My Mind.
According to editors at the
Daily Mail, Velardi, who met the then relatively unknown Williams in a bar in San Francisco in 1976, revealed she was aware of and accepted his infidelities during their 10-year marriage.
“He loved women,” she said in the documentary. “Absolutely loved women. And I got it.
“I understood and I wanted him to have that, but I also wanted him to come home.”
Williams was propelled to fame after starring as an alien in a one-off episode of Happy
Days. His character proved so popular he was given his own spin off show — Mork And
Mindy — which made him a household name.
However, the couple drifted apart after a while and Velardi became less involved in his growing career.
“He was always looking for a connection or another character or an accent,” she sighed. “He was shameless. He would just do it.
“So we gave each other up.” The couple had one son together, Zachary, but their marriage ended in 1988 after Williams left his first wife for their son’s nanny, Marsha Garces, who was pregnant by the star.
Williams and Garces had children Zelda and Cody during their marriage which lasted from 1989 to 2010.
At the time of his death, the Mrs. Doubtfire star was married to third wife Susan Schneider. The Academy Award-winning actor suffered from dementia and killed himself in August 2014 at age 63.