Zsa Zsa Gabor's Relationship History Is Full Of Ups And Downs (& 8 Ex-Husbands)

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Zsa Zsa Gabor made her big screen debut in 1952's "Lovely to Look At," and she dominated the box office for the rest of that decade, landing numerous iconic film roles, including 1953's "Moulin Rouge" and 1958's "Touch of Evil." However, despite her indisputable success as an actor, Gabor may have been even more famous for her personal life. She wasn't shy about her love of money, nor her love of men. And yet, just like Elizabeth Taylor's 7 marriages paint a complicated picture of her love life, Gabor's 9 weddings and 8 divorces conceal some dark truths.

Gabor, who was born in Europe amidst the heartbreak of World War I, was one of those stars who were pushed too hard by their parents. Her mother, Jolie, wanted her to be famous, no matter what, and she ultimately rose to the occasion. As a teen, Gabor was encouraged to compete in the 1936 Miss Hungary beauty pageant, which she won, although she was later disqualified for lying about her age. 

Not long after that, she walked down the aisle for the first time. Reflecting on her dating track record in 1986, Gabor told People, "The moment a man is bad I fall in love with him." And yet, that did little to dissuade her from tying the knot over and over again. Here's your closer look at Gabor's long-winding relationship history.

Sári Gábor, later known as Zsa Zsa Gabor, liked to keep her true age a mystery, but most sources list her year of birth as either 1917 or 1918. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Gabor was the second of three sisters and grew up with a mother who had high hopes for all of her girls. "We were born to be special, born to be queens and empresses," Gabor wrote in her 1991 autobiography, "One Lifetime Is Not Enough," per Vanity Fair. "To marry the crème de la crème, to personify perfection."

Indeed, the actor didn't wait long to walk down the aisle for the first time. After meeting Burhan Asaf Belge, the former Turkish ambassador to Hungary, she proposed, and they tied the knot in 1937. While Belge was 35 years old at the time, Gabor appears to have been 18, although she occasionally claimed she was only 15 on her wedding day.

The pair ultimately settled in Belge's native Turkey in the city of Ankara, where the details of their union got murkier. Gabor would later allege that, despite being married until 1941, she and her first husband were never intimate. Rather, she said that her first physical love affair was with Turkey's founder and first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, while she was still married to Belge.

While Zsa Zsa Gabor was living in Turkey, her younger sister, "Green Acres" star Eva Gabor, was busy trying to make it in Hollywood. It seems Gabor liked what she heard from her sibling because, in 1941, she filed for divorce and moved to the United States as well. Not long after, she met her second husband, Conrad Hilton, at Ciro's, a posh nightclub on Sunset Boulevard. Despite him being 30 years older, Gabor said "I do" to the millionaire hotelier just a year later.

However, she soon learned that her new beau was more interested in his career than in his home life. According to biographer Sam Staggs, the pair didn't sleep in the same room and, as he wrote in 2019's "Finding Zsa Zsa," per People, "[Hilton] had only two passions in life: his religion and Hilton hotels." Indeed, Gabor recalled a telling incident from her wedding night in her own 1991 autobiography. "I gazed ardently into Conrad's clear blue eyes and whispered, 'Conrad, what are you thinking of?'" she wrote, per Vanity Fair. Rather than saying something sweet, Hilton apparently told his young wife that he had a big hotel deal on his mind.

Ultimately, they split in 1947, and Gabor gave birth to their daughter, Francesca Gabor Hilton, shortly after. Sadly, this was no amicable split as Hilton reportedly questioned his paternity while Gabor claimed her daughter was born of a non-consensual encounter with her then-husband.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's third walk down the aisle was with British actor George Sanders. Once again, Gabor made the first move after seeing Sanders playing the piano at a party in New York. According to Richard VanDerBeets' 1990 biography of Sanders, "An Exhausted Life," Gabor boldly approached him and quipped, "Mr. Sanders, I'm madly in love with you" (per Vanity Fair). 

That proclamation clearly worked, and they wed in 1949 but eventually divorced in 1954. Even so, they would remain close as Gabor confessed in her 1991 autobiography, per Vanity Fair, "If I could live my entire life over again, I would spend every minute of it with George." However, despite such high praise, their union was highly volatile. Sanders was reportedly jealous of Gabor's fame, and they were both insecure about infidelity, even though both were unfaithful. 

After Gabor (who hired a private investigator) learned her husband was having an affair with socialite Doris Duke, she began her own liaison with Duke's ex-husband, Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat and famous playboy. Stranger still, Gabor would later encourage her ex to marry her older sister, Magda, which he did in 1970. That union lasted just six weeks, but did nothing to shake Gabor and Sanders' bond. Following his death in 1972, Gabor called him "the major love of my life," per The Los Angeles Times.

Eight years after her divorce from George Sanders, Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was now in her mid-forties, found herself in familiar territory. The year was 1962, and she was tying the knot yet again, this time exchanging vows with Herbert L. Hutner. Despite Gabor being at the top of her career, The New York Times confirmed it wasn't a lavish affair. Instead, the couple opted for a private civil ceremony, which was officiated by Justice Saul S. Streit and took place right inside his offices in the New York State Supreme Court.

Even though she had already been divorced three times, Gabor told the media this time was different. "I am going to work very hard to make it my last," she assured, per The Los Angeles Times. For his part, Hutner, an investment banker and lawyer, appeared equally committed. 

He was often photographed accompanying his wife to her film premieres and reportedly sent her 24 roses every 30 minutes to celebrate her birthday one year. In the end, though, Gabor and Hutner were together for just four years, going their separate ways in 1966, but remaining friends.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's next two marriages would prove to be some of her shortest – and wildest. Just a single day after she divorced Herbert L. Hutner, the actor was photographed getting a marriage license with oil tycoon Joshua S. Cosden Jr. According to Gabor's 1991 autobiography, they first met in Texas when he was sent to accompany her to a charity gala at a local museum. 

Hutner was supposed to be her date but broke his leg. That event would mark the end of their marriage as Gabor became infatuated with Cosden and he with her. Although they only just met, he later called to tell Gabor she should divorce Hutner and marry him, which she did. However, it simply wasn't meant to be, and they divorced in 1967.

An eight-year break followed before she walked down the aisle again, this time with Mattel VP and chief designer Jack Ryan, who was behind classics like Barbie and Hot Wheels. He was also Gabor's party-loving neighbor and, as she revealed in her book, she actually called Bel Air Patrol on him repeatedly. However, when they finally met at a mutual friend's home, her opinion changed. "I was thoroughly beguiled by him," she recalled. They married at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1975, but Gabor would learn on her honeymoon that Ryan enjoyed a swinger's lifestyle, which she didn't approve of. Their union fell apart 7 months later in 1976.

Zsa Zsa Gabor could fall in love in the strangest of places. During her 1976 divorce from Jack Ryan, the actor was represented by lawyer Michael O'Hara, with whom she wasted no time settling down. Indeed, mere days – three, to be exact – after her divorce became final, Gabor made it official and married O'Hara.

The couple met by fluke after Gabor's longtime lawyer died suddenly, and O'Hara was appointed to take over. As the actor recalled in her autobiography, they didn't meet in person until she flew to Las Vegas to sign the divorce papers, but she was quickly hooked. "The moment I set eyes on Michael, I was enthralled by him," she gushed. They had dinner and decided to wed in the same place where Gabor had said "I do" to Ryan months earlier. "The chapel owner blinked as if to say, 'I saw you here not long ago,'" she recalled.

That may have been a bad omen worth paying attention to because their time together proved difficult. According to Gabor, her seventh hubby was moody and unwilling to have fun. "I did suffer during my marriage to Michael," she wrote, claiming the marriage took an emotional toll on her. The pair ultimately divorced in 1983 and never spoke again, despite Gabor maintaining good relationships with all her exes.

Despite being married more times than most, Zsa Zsa Gabor's eighth wedding was a headline-making affair, even for her. In 1982, Gabor, who was now in her mid-sixties (although she claimed to be a decade younger), exchanged vows with Felipe de Alba, a Mexican actor and lawyer. The couple made it official 12 years aboard a yacht that belonged to her sister, Eva, while visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

According to UPI, it was an intimate affair with just 10 guests and, after saying "I do," the party enjoyed chicken tacos for dinner and a mariachi band for entertainment. The ceremony was officiated by the boat's captain and took place in international waters because Gabor and Alba didn't have the appropriate marriage license in Mexico. As it soon turned out, though, they didn't have the right paperwork to tie the knot at all.

Gabor and Alba's nuptials would last just one day, as it was revealed that her divorce from Michael O'Hara hadn't been finalized, and so, the union was actually illegal. The whole thing was annulled and, although the couple initially planned to try again three months later, that never happened. "He bored me," Gabor explained, per the Los Angeles Times. "He's a playboy, and I'm a hard-working actress."

Zsa Zsa Gabor wed for the ninth and final time in 1986 when she married Prince Frédéric von Anhalt. "I liked how he looked; I liked how he talked," she told Vanity Fair in 2007. "I liked everything about him." Although not a real prince (he received his title after being adopted by a widowed German princess), Anhalt had no trouble wooing women. In fact, Gabor was his seventh wife, and they never would have met if not for his cunning. 

Although Gabor told the outlet they were introduced by a mutual friend at a restaurant, other accounts reveal that Anhalt came to Los Angeles in 1983 and paid a paparazzo $10,000 to introduce him to Gabor. For the next three years, he would move between California and Germany before finally marrying Gabor, who was 25 years his senior.

As Gabor went into hiding before her death, rumors began that Anhalt was using her for her money and alienating her from her family, especially after her 2005 stroke, which ultimately left her bedridden. That same year, he even sued Gabor's daughter, Francesca, accusing her of stealing money from her mother. However, Gabor brushed such gossip aside, telling Vanity Fair, "We have a very good marriage." Similarly, the prince said he loved his wife and argued he'd given up his entire life to take care of her. In the end, when Gabor died in 2016 at age 99, she left her entire estate to her last husband.

In addition to her many marriages, Zsa Zsa Gabor had countless high-profile flings, which she liked to boast about. Indeed, she was just as well known for her romances as for her acting, and she saw no shame in that. Gabor was so brazen about her many liaisons that she once quipped, per Mirror, "I never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back."

Over the years, she was linked to a long list of who's who, including high-profile politicians and A-list celebs, like Richard Nixon, Sean Connery, and Richard Burton. Sharing some of her more eyebrow-raising encounters, Gabor confirmed, per Vanity Fair, that she'd gotten together with her stepson, Nicky Hilton, and even went on a few dates with Jack Kennedy. Another memorable moment occurred when she shared a passionate kiss with Greta Garbo. According to her 1991 memoir, Garbo made the first move and, she wrote per Vanity Fair, "I couldn't help but kiss her back because she was so overwhelmingly strong and beautiful."

On the flip side, she said she also turned down plenty of rich suitors and was, in fact, not one of John F. Kennedy's rumored affair partners. However, there was one man she couldn't turn down, even though she'd wanted to. Garbo claimed she never really liked Frank Sinatra, but that she agreed to be intimate with him one night because he refused to leave her house otherwise.