Mia Farrow Recalls Her 1966 Wedding to Frank Sinatra: Why She ‘Wore Whatever’ Was in Her Closet

Mia Farrow is looking back on her 1966 wedding to Frank Sinatra, revealing the secrets behind her understated wedding gown.

During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show that aired Friday, Nov. 8, the actress, 79, shared that her nuptials with the late “My Way” crooner had been a spur of a moment thing — so much so that she had little time to choose a dress for the occasion. 

“I only knew the day before when we were going to get married, so I had to wear whatever I had in my closet,” recalled Farrow, who was on the show alongside Patti LuPone, her costar in Broadway's The Roommate. “It was like that, yeah.”

Farrow and Sinatra met on the 20th Century Fox lot in 1964 and quickly fell in love. Two years later — when Farrow was 21 and Sinatra was 50 — he proposed.

At the time, Sinatra had gone to England to “finish a film” while she was left inside a “rented house” with “two rooms” that had been surrounded by press. She noted there were “cameras against every window” and there were “no drapes” in the home.

“So I would crawl around the [floor] and I would go to the refrigerator, and I would open it from the floor — which isn't easy — and try to get a pizza out or… something to eat,” she shared. “And then he would call and I would just pretend everything was just fine, but it was a freaky thing."

The singer eventually saw what was happening on TV in England, and decided to make a major proposition, suggesting they elope at a Las Vegas hotel.

"He called and he said, ‘I think we should get married tomorrow,' " Farrow recalled. "I'm like, ‘Oh, ok!' "

“Oh my God,” a surprised Barrymore responded, adding “Isn't life so wild?”

Two years after they wed, Sinatra served the actress with divorce papers on the set of her film Rosemary’s Baby.

"He left me because I wouldn't leave the movie when he told me to leave it," Farrow recalled to Barrymore. "It had another month. He had some dispute with the head of the studio and he said, 'I'm taking my girl out of this,' that kind of thing. [But] when he told me to leave it, I said, 'How can I leave it?' You know, I'm the daughter of a director and an actress ... my mother was Maureen O'Sullivan and my father was a movie director, and I couldn't leave a movie. And I was in every shot, and it was almost [done]; I had one more month."

Farrow went on to reveal she never thought Sinatra would actually divorce her, but then one day, "his lawyer came on set [and] served me with divorce papers."

She told The Guardian in 2007 that their age difference was a factor in the relationship ending, saying that she felt she was “less mature than any other 19-year-old” she’d ever known.” This immaturity came to play after the divorce as she admitted to the Los Angeles Times, “I was too immature to handle that situation. ... I became very withdrawn and tried to find other values in life.”

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However, Farrow shared in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2013 that the pair “never really split up” and still kept in touch after the divorce. Their long-lasting friendship lasted until his death in 1998. 

Last year, she even paid tribute to the late star on what would have been his 107th birthday on Instagram. Alongside a photo of him, she wrote, “I bet he has those angel choirs singing some great new songs!” 

“This was the first photo I took with the Rolleiflex camera he bought for us. He was teaching me how to use it,” she continued. “Happy Heavenly Birthday C.B. I will always love you.”

The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays (check local listings).