Why Donna Reed Stayed Married To Tony Owen For So Long

Celebrity relationships aren't known for lasting super long (just ask Ryan Reynolds before he wed Blake Lively or check out our roundup of the shortest celeb marriages) but some couples manage to stay together for decades. This includes Donna Reed — star of everyone's favorite Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" — and her husband of 25 years, producer Tony Owen. The Hollywood power couple married in June 1945, adopted two children and later welcomed two more biologically, but they ultimately divorced in 1971. During their marriage, they worked together on "The Donna Reed Show," with Reed starring and Owen producing.

The series ran from 1958 to 1966 and Reed stuck it out with Owen for another five years after the finale for the sake of her children. According to an interview she did with The Morning Call, Reed said she "just couldn't bear the idea of small children having a stepfather," but added that the marriage had gone downhill fast. Reed asked herself if she wanted to spend her remaining years in an unhappy marriage (via Closer Weekly). Deciding she did not, she got a divorce. "Getting divorced was terrible," she admitted. "But it was also terrible being married." She cited clashing personalities as part of the reason their nuptials didn't work out.

Chatting with Closer Weekly in 2020, Donna Reed and Tony Owen's daughter, Mary Anne Owen, reflected on her parents' divorce, saying, "She and my father had been together for 25 years and split up, which was just too bad." Mary Anne then noted that both the age difference between her parents (about 14 years) and the fact that her mom hadn't really taken a break from working since she was 21 could have contributed to the divorce. "The TV show was just incredibly rigorous and they couldn't make it work anymore," she explained.

No matter how busy Reed and Owen were with the TV show, they still made time for their family. Their son, Tony Owen Jr., told The Daily Nonpareil in 2007 his parents never missed out on their kids' lives. "I saw my parents every day, and we ate dinner at night around the table," he said, adding that he never thought of Reed as her TV persona, Donna Stone; she was just mom.

Tony also shared that Reed left her Hollywood business at the front door when she came home, separating the two worlds as best she could. He noted: "Mom was not an actress at home. She was concerned for the welfare of her kids." This echoes what Reed told The Morning Call about why she remained in a loveless marriage for all those years. Her kids were always her top priority.