BATTERED LONI ESCAPES BURT’S
Beauty finally forgives ex who made life hell
BLOND bombshell Loni Anderson is making a comeback at age 73 with a happy fourth marriage and lead sitcom role — now that her brutal hottempered ex-husband Burt Reynolds is dead!
“Loni feels she’s no longer living in Burt’s long shadow,” says a pal. “She can finally be herself.
“It’s incredibly freeing and she’s taking advantage of every minute!”
Even before Burt’s death at age 82 of a heart attack last Sept. 6, Loni accused the former Florida State running back of being a trigger-tempered, pill-popping monster who physically and emotionally terrorized her and once gave her a gun and told her to kill herself.
Their five-year marriage — which included adopting a son, Quinton, now 30 — ended in 1993. But the Smokey and the Bandit stud didn’t finish paying her settlement until 22 years later.
While he accused her of cheating, he’d strayed first with a sexy cocktail waitress.
Ironically, bighearted Loni showed up for Julien’s Auction of Burt’s memorabilia in L.A. holding no grudges.
“I’m here for Burt. I still loved him,” she says.
After years of misery and a fizzling career, Loni found happiness with her fourth hubby, folk singer Bob Flick, in 2008.
As her happiness and confidence grew, she began coming out from under Burt’s dark cloud.
She made a brief single appearance on the ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy in 2016, and the following year, she took a lead role in the sitcom My Sister Is So Gay, for the Tello lesbian and gay network.
“Now that Burt’s dead, Loni feels like she can finally live again,” says the source.