Who Was Rob Reiner’s First Wife? All About Penny Marshall & Their Marriage
What To Know
- The late Rob Reiner’s first wife was actress and director Penny Marshall.
- Marshall died in 2018 at 75 years old.
- Reiner and Marshall went on to divorce, and 10 years later, Reiner married his late second wife, Michele.
Before he fell in love with his future wife, Michele, on the set of When Harry Met Sally, the late Rob Reiner was married to another woman in showbiz: Penny Marshall.
Early on in her career — and before she went on to direct classics like A League of Their Own and Big — the Laverne & Shirley actress tied the knot with Reiner. Though they wound up divorced, Reiner remained on good terms with his ex until she died in 2018.
“I loved Penny,” The This is Spinal Tap director wrote on social media upon learning of his ex-wife’s death at 75 years old. “I grew up with her. She was born with a great gift. She was born with a funnybone and the instinct of how to use it. I was very lucky to have lived with her and her funnybone. I will miss her.”
After their split, Reiner married Michele, and the couple remained together for 35 years, until their deaths in December 2025. But what was Reiner’s relationship like with his first wife? Keep reading for Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall’s relationship history.
How long were Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall together?
Though they grew up on the same street in the Bronx, Reiner and Marshall didn’t get to know each other until later. They met during an audition to play a married couple in All in the Family. Though Marshall didn’t nab the role, she did start dating Reiner after that.
The former couple married in April 1971 and went on to blend the personal with the professional, collaborating on movies and shows like Laverne & Shirley and More Than Friends, which would’ve reflected their own story had they met in their youth — it’s about childhood friends from the Bronx who fall in love.
Why did Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall split?
A year after More Than Friends came out in 1978, Reiner and Marshall split. “It’s still sad that Rob and I didn’t work it out, but he’s happily married with three kids — my grandson went to school with his kids, two of his boys,” Marshall told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.
That same year, she told Vulture, “We stayed together longer because of pride. We always thought we would get back together when we were much older. But he’s got a wife and family now… We still get along.”
Before their divorce, Marshall opened up about the toll both of their successful careers were taking on their marriage.
“[Laverne & Shirley] has kept me so busy that I’m not moping around the house like I used to, which has taken some pressure off Rob,” Marshall told Ventura County Star, per MeTV. “Since he started his Fire Sale movie and I got back into production of my series we haven’t seen one another too much.”
Did Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall have kids?
Reiner adopted his them-wife’s daughter, Tracy, whom Marshall shared with her first husband, Michael Henry. Tracy went on to appear in When Harry Met Sally, A League of Their Own, and Apollo 13. Tracy also made them grandparents, having three kids.
