Princess Diana once sent the late Burt Reynolds a thank you note, but it was not exactly for something Reynolds would want to celebrate.
In the 2015 memoir But Enough About Me, Reynolds revealed that he received a note from the princess after he and actress Loni Anderson announced their divorce.
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“We announced the separation, the press went into high gear,” Reynolds wrote, reports PEOPLE. “Princess Diana sent me a thank you note for keeping her off the cover of PEOPLE Magazine.”
Reynolds accused Anderson of buying “everything in triplicate, from every day dresses to jewelry to china and linens” during their marriage. She even maxed out a “platinum American Express card with a $45,000 credit limit” in an “hour and a half,” Reynolds claimed.
Reynolds also claimed Anderson once told him she could never wear a dress again after she was photographed wearing it once. “I have to dress like a star,” she told him.
During a 2015 interview, Reynolds said he regretted the marriage.
“I should have known that you don’t marry an actress. That was a really dumb move on my part,” Reynolds told PEOPLE in 2015.
Reynolds and Anderson, 72, were married for five years, from 1988 to 1993. They adopted a son Quinton, now 30. Three years after the bitter divorce, Reynolds filed for bankruptcy.
According to the Los Angeles Times, it took 22 years for their financial ties to be completely cut. The divorce played out in public, with Reynolds once even telling Good Morning America that the divorce should not have surprised Anderson, since they had not had sex in three years. Reynolds also claimed he caught her cheating on him, even though he was also involved with someone else, too. And he claimed Anderson was not a good mother for their son.
In September 2015, the financial mess between the two finally ended when Reynolds wrote Anderson a $154,520 check. In order to afford it, Reynolds had to auction off some of his prized memorabilia.
Before his marriage to Anderson, Reynolds was married to the late Laugh-In star Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965. Reynolds also famously dated his Smokey and the Bandit co-star Sally Field from 1977 to 1982.
“There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy,” Field said in a statement.
Reynolds died Thursday at age 82.
Photo credit: Getty Images
