Lucille Ball Had Intense ‘Sexual Chemistry’ With Desi Arnaz – She Was ‘Powerless’ Against It

A new book is exposing the raw “sexual chemistry” between the legendary former “I Love Lucy” stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Good morning! Today in 1951, “I Love Lucy” premiered on TV, starring Lucille Ball and her real life husband, Desi Arnaz pic.twitter.com/BCAfeigqB5

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) October 15, 2023

Ball And Arnaz Were ‘Madly In Love Immediately’

“They each had their own careers, they were engaged to other people … but their connection was that powerful,” author Sarah Royal explained to Fox News. “It’s part of the reason they’re so compelling as a couple because they [didn’t] ignore the red flags. They did talk about them. They had conversations before getting married and being together … especially Lucy.”

“Lucy was the level-headed one, and Desi was the romantic,” she continued. “[But] there was this electric hold and connection between the two of them where [they] were just madly in love immediately.”

Royal wrote the book “A.K.A Lucy: The Dynamic and Determined Life of Lucille Ball,” which came out last week and tells the incredible story of Ball, who died in 1989 at the age of 77.

“Something that I learned … was how vulnerable she was,” Royal said of Ball. “I think that is an incredibly human quality that we don’t often imagine and think of a megastar as having, a certain degree of humility. But, also, just self-doubt and vulnerability to bad press, to troublesome relationships, to just struggling to find your place in the world.”

Ball and Arnaz were each seeing other people when they met in 1940, but it was love at first sight for them. They quickly dumped their respective partners and began a romance that would go down in history, marrying just six months later.

“What surprised me about them is that they did have this hot steamy romance, this sexual chemistry,” said Royal. “But there was also a lot of arguing and a lot of heartache.”

📺DEBUT: ‘I Love Lucy’ starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley premiered 72 years ago, October 1951, on CBS pic.twitter.com/GiF0PFtxu3

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) October 17, 2023

Related: Inside Lucille Ball And Desi Arnaz’s Sex-Crazed Marriage

Sexual And Romantic Chemistry ‘Off The Charts’

Though there were difficult times in their marriage, Ball and Arnaz’s sexual and romantic chemistry was “off the charts.”

“There’s a funny story of Lucy giving an interview to somebody,” Royal said. “And the interviewer says something like, ‘When are you going to get married?’ And she’s like, ‘No, I’m just going to be a bachelor girl.’ And then literally, after that interview, Desi’s like, ‘So we’re going to get married.’”

“Part of it is that Lucy went against a lot of judgment in terms of her own,” she continued. “’We have to do things the smart way, and I’m going to be very calm, cool and collected about this.’ But in a lot of ways, she was also just powerless against this force that was between her and Desi. … She felt understood by him in a way that I think no one else did. I don’t think that there ever was an actual dissolution of love between them until the day that each of them died.”

Royal wrote in her book that Ball “decided she wanted nothing more than to please Desi and take care of him, and that she would sacrifice anything to make that happen. After all the distressing back-and-forth about whether they should be together, she was blissfully, deliriously happy.”

Meanwhile, Arnaz “passionately worshiped the ground she walked on.”

Ball and Arnaz starred together on the sitcom “I Love Lucy” throughout the 1950s, which quickly became the number one show in the country, but behind the scenes, their marriage was falling apart.

“To his credit, Desi admitted that he was raised observing and believing in a double standard where women must remain sexually loyal, but men were free to wander,” Royal wrote. “Everyone’s like, ‘Desi was a womanizer and ruined the whole thing.’ That’s part of the story. He had a certain way of thinking about sexual escapades outside his marriage that had nothing to do with the emotional dedication and loyalty he had to his wife. Lucy felt differently. She felt that these sexual escapades outside the marriage were not part of what she wanted from a husband.”

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz outside their Desilu Studios in 1958.

📷 by Leonard McCombe pic.twitter.com/oq5Q3EAVDi

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) October 19, 2023

Related: Lucille Ball’s Daughter Reveals Secrets About Her Mom’s Marriage to Desi Arnaz

Ball And Arnaz Divorce 

Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960, and though they each went on to marry other people, they remained in one another’s lives.

“At first, there was a lot of sorrow and a lot of rockiness,” Royal explained. “But they shared children. They created this incredible TV studio and machine together. … And they had this chemistry that nobody else had. … The pain softened and, in a lot of ways, they did have a more comfortable relationship. They actually were in each other’s lives a lot.

“Not only for their grandchildren, but they knew each other’s spouses. Lucy even hung out with Desi’s second wife a couple of times,” she added. “They would play cards. They recognized that it would be impossible to split. And there still always was a love. He would still send her flowers on their anniversary even though they weren’t married anymore. … They set an example that there’s all different kinds of love.”

The former couple spoke to one another for the last time days before Arnaz died in 1986, and their final words to each other were “I love you.”

“I think they made great decisions to decouple their marriage but not their relationship with each other,” said Royal. “And I think they both supported each other through the end of both of their lives.”

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the 1980’s, years after their divorce. @cbschicago @CBS #ILoveLucy pic.twitter.com/ohZ2sgFFUW

— Chicago History ™️ (@Chicago_History) May 18, 2015

While Ball and Arnaz are still dearly missed to this day, they will always live on through their incredible work on “I Love Lucy.” God bless them both, and may they each be resting in peace!