(4 March 1952 - 5 June 2004) (his death) (2 children)
1. Ron Reagan
2. Patti Davis
On November 15, 1949, Anne Frances Robbins (Nancy Davis) met Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild. She had noticed that her name had appeared on the Hollywood blacklist, and sought Ronald Reagan's help to maintain her employment as a guild actress in Hollywood, and for assistance in having her name removed from the list. Ronald Reagan informed her that she had been confused with another actress of the same name. The two began dating and their relationship was the subject of many gossip columns; one Hollywood press account described their nightclub-free times together as "the romance of a couple who have no vices". Ronald Reagan was skeptical about marriage, however, following his painful 1949 divorce from Jane Wyman, and he still saw other women.
After three years of dating, they eventually decided to marry while discussing the issue in the couple's favorite booth at Chasen's, a restaurant in Beverly Hills. They married on March 4, 1952, in a simple and hastily arranged ceremony designed to avoid the press, at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The only people in attendance were fellow actor William Holden (the best man) and his wife, actress Brenda Marshall (the matron of honor). Nancy was perhaps already pregnant at this time; the couple's first child, Patricia Ann Reagan (later better known by her professional name, Patti Davis), was born less than eight months later on October 21, 1952. Their son, Ronald Prescott Reagan (later better known as Ron Reagan) was born six years later on May 20, 1958. Reagan also became stepmother to Maureen Reagan (1941–2001) and Michael Reagan (born 1945), the daughter and adopted son of her husband's first marriage to Jane Wyman.
Observers described Nancy and Ronald's relationship as intimate. As President and First Lady, the Reagans were reported to display their affection frequently, with one press secretary noting, "They never took each other for granted. They never stopped courting." Ronald often called Nancy "Mommy"; she called him "Ronnie". While the President was recuperating in the hospital after the 1981 assassination attempt, Nancy Reagan wrote in her diary, "Nothing can happen to my Ronnie. My life would be over." In a letter to Nancy, Ronald wrote, "whatever I treasure and enjoy... all would be without meaning if I didn't have you." In 1998, while her husband was afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, Reagan told Vanity Fair, "Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him." Nancy was known for the focused and attentive look, termed "the Gaze", that she fastened upon her husband during his speeches and appearances.
President Reagan's death in June 2004 ended what Charlton Heston called "the greatest love affair in the history of the American Presidency."