Mary Tyler Moore was married three times, but her happiest marriage was to Dr. Robert Levine, a man who didn’t know who she was when they met.
Moore’s first two marriages, to Richard Carleton Meeker and Grant Tinker, were both short-lived and ended in divorce. However, her marriage to Levine lasted for 34 years, until her death in 2017.
In an interview with HBO, Moore said that Levine fell in love with her for who she was, not for her fame. She said that he was “the most loving thing anyone has done for me in my life.”
Levine also said that he didn’t watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show when it was on the air and he wasn’t aware of the place that she held in Hollywood. He explained, “In that first moment, I recognized it was different and certainly our first date... it was so easy. Because I didn’t really know Mary as a star, so there wasn’t (a) fan-star thing going on.”
Moore and Levine met because he was her mother’s doctor. They quickly fell in love and got married in 1983.
During their marriage, Moore continued to pursue her acting career and became involved in important causes. She and Bernadette Peters started Broadway Barks, which helps people adopt pets safely.
After Moore’s death in 2017, Levine shared a beautiful message about how he felt about her. He said that she was “the most loving, caring, and compassionate person I have ever known.”
Moore’s story is a reminder that it is possible to find true love, even if you have been through difficult relationships in the past. It is also a reminder that the most important thing in a relationship is to be loved for who you are, not for what you have.