- Marge Cooney was the first wife of TV celebrity Phil Donahue.
- The former couple was married for nearly a decade and had five great-children.
- Marge fell pregnant with their first child after months of trying.
Many of you may not have heard of Marge Cooney. It’s not shocking to learn that she was the first wife of TV celebrity Phil Donahue. The former couple was married for nearly a decade and had five great-children.
When they divorced, they began a new life with new people. While Phil is still in the news, his ex-wife Marge is completely out of the picture. Without solid evidence, many tabloids claim she is dead.
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Details about Marge Cooney and Phil Donahue’s Wedding
Margie and Phil officially married after nearly a year of engagement.
They married on February 1, 1958, at San Felipe de Neri,
New Mexico, in one of the country’s oldest cathedrals.
There were three priests for the Solemn High Nuptial Mass.
The ceremony itself was small, with only a few of their friends and relatives present.
Phil was introduced to Marge by her brother.
The former flames originally met while attending the University of Notre Dame.
Phil was a big fan of theaters when he was in college.
And through the medium of theater, he met a man named Jim Cooney.
The two of them quickly became great friends.
Around the same time, Jim introduced Phil to his sister Margaret Marge Cooney,
a former Marquette University student.
He remembered her as a tall, gorgeous girl who looked sexy with
an overcoat buttoned up around her neck when he first saw her.
The couple began dating soon after, but their relationship was not serious at first.
Their genuine connection didn’t begin until she dropped out of school and
went to Chicago during Phil’s senior year.
She had acquired a job at Price Waterhouse at the Prudential Building and the Loop at the time.
Fortunately, the young couple was not put off by the distance.
Marge Cooney and Phil Donahue Have Five Children.
Margaret and Phil had five children from their ten-year marriage, two of them were born in the first year.
The TV personality was desperate to have children.
This is why, only a few months into their marriage, he and his wife attempted to have children.
However, they had no luck for the first few months.
Marge fell pregnant with their first child after months of trying.
Cooney and her children and husband
At the Ohio State Fair, the Donahue family From the
left to the right (Phil Donahue, Mary Rose, Mike, Dan, Kevin, Jim, and Margie.)
On January 30, 1959, they welcomed their first child, Michael Donahue.
He was born too soon. Michael has also been married to Martha Reed von Gal.
Marge gave birth to their second child, Kevin Donahue, on December 9, 1959, the same year.
Marge gave birth to two additional sons, Daniel Donahue and James Patrick, within three years, in 1963.
After four sons, the couple welcomed their one and only daughter, Mary Rose Donahue, in 1965.
Marge’s youngest son, James ‘Jim,’ died in 2014 at the age of 51. He used to reside and practice law in Hawaii.
Marge and Phil divorced in 1973 after separating in 1973.
The couple decided to split up in the summer of 1973.
Marge returned to her hometown of Albuquerque with her two children and rented an apartment there.
Phil was left with the other three children.
Marge Cooney’s sons (Jim, Kevin, Phil, Dan, and Mike) during an event.
They were separated for ten months before they reconciled.
Cooney and Phil did it for their five children.
Nonetheless, things did not go well, and after four months of reconciliation, they divorced.
Their divorce was formalized in 1975, and Phil received sole custody of his four kids,
while their daughter Mary was left in the care of her mother.
Both Marge and Phil later remarried.
Margie married again after divorcing the Phil Donahue show star and returned to her native New Mexico.
She had entirely vanished from public view.
The last time the world saw her was when Phil included a family photo of Marge
and their five children in his book, Phil Donahue, My Own Story (1980).
Photo
Phill married Marlo Thomas on May 21, 1980, after his divorce from Cooney.
Despite the fact that the couple does not have any children,
she became the stepmother to Phil’s five children, who are now four.
Phil and Marlo will publish a book titled What Makes a Marriage Last in 2020, to commemorate their 40th wedding anniversary.
Also read:
Where Has Marge Cooney Gone? Is she alive or dead?
Marge’s current location is unknown, according to several accounts.
Several tabloids claim Cooney died in 2018, yet the material they have written
about is of a different woman with the same name as Margie.
Now, as for her current location, that remains a mystery.
She did return to her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico after divorcing Phil,
and she has kept a quiet profile since then.
Despite this, Marge is still alive and well.
She is not deceased, as several media outlets claim.
She is now 82 years old and lives a quiet life.
Marge Cooney’s net worth.
Because there is no record of Marge’s professional life,
determining her overall worth is impossible.
Nonetheless, she must have received a substantial amount of divorce alimony from her renowned hubby,
who was earning upwards of $15,000 per year in his 70s?
Marge’s ex-husband Phil has a remarkable net worth of $150 million as of 2020.
