A new biography about the late Desi Arnaz reveals that he secretly altered his eldest son’s name without consulting his wife, Lucille Ball, back in 1951.
In “Digiranas: The Man Who Invented Television,” author Todd S. Perdham states that Ball had previously agreed on the names Susan and Desi Jr. for their children. Ball, after experiencing several miscarriages, finally gave birth to their first child, a daughter, in July 1951 via C-section.
After the birth, Ball was eager to see her new baby once the anesthesia wore off, exclaiming, “I want to see Susan!” This was in memory of her best friend, actress Susan Peters, who had suffered a tragic accident that left her paralyzed. However, when she asked a nurse about her daughter, the response was, “Do you mean Lucy?”
To Ball’s surprise, Desi had already registered their daughter’s name as Lucy Desily on her birth certificate, a decision he made without her input. Although caught off guard, she didn’t protest much; she seemed to take it as a sort of compliment.
The couple’s son, Desi Jr., was born in January 1953, and he later adopted the name that Ball had always intended for him.
Now 72 and reflecting on their parents’ legacy, Desi Jr. shared his thoughts about their family dynamics and the divorce of Ball and Arnaz in 1960, noting, “That wasn’t good for anyone.” He recalled the moment they sat down to discuss the strained state of their marriage, a memory that remains vivid for him.
In 1961, following their divorce, Ball remarried comedian Gary Morton, while Arnaz found love again with Edith Mac Hirsch in 1963. Ball passed away in 1989, still married to Morton, while Arnaz’s second wife passed away from cancer in 1985.
