Annette Funicello - Personal Life

Personal Life

Funicello was married to her first husband, Jack Gilardi, from 1965 until 1981. They had three children: Gina (b. 1966), Jack, Jr. (b. 1970), and Jason (b. 1974). In 1986, she married California harness racing horse breeder/trainer Glen Holt. Annette and Glen were frequently seen at Los Alamitos Race Course and at Fairplex in Pomona in the 1980s and 1990s attending harness horse races.

In 1987, Funicello reunited with Frankie Avalon for a series of promotional concerts to promote their film Back to the Beach. She began to suffer from dizzy spells, but kept her failing health from her friends and family.

Funicello announced in 1992 that she suffers from multiple sclerosis. She had kept her condition a secret for many years, but felt it necessary to go public to combat rumors that her impaired ability to walk was the result of alcoholism. That same year, she was inducted as a Disney Legend. In 1993, she opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation.

Funicello's best friend is Shelley Fabares. She and Fabares have been friends since they were young teenagers in a catechism class, and Fabares was a bridesmaid at Funicello's first wedding. She is also very close to fellow Mouseketeers Sharon Baird, Doreen Tracey, and her "Beach" movies co-star, Frankie Avalon and was very close to the late Cheryl Holdridge .

Her autobiography, dictated to Patricia Romanowski and published in 1994, is A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story. The title is taken from a song from the Disney movie Cinderella. A made-for-TV movie based on the book, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, was made in 1995. In the final scene, the actress portraying Funicello (Eva LaRue), riding in a wheelchair, turns away from the camera — turning back, it is Funicello herself, who delivers a message to a group of children. During this period, she produced a line of teddy bears for the Annette Funicello Collectible Bear Company. The last collection in the series was made in 2004. She also has her own fragrance called "Cello, by Annette".

Funicello's parents died within two years of each other. On September 2, 2007, her mother, Virginia Funicello, died of pneumonia, one month after her 86th birthday. On May 21, 2009, her father, Joseph Funicello, died of natural causes at the age of 93. Her parents appeared in the above-mentioned A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, and her mother also appeared in the 1995 documentary The Mickey Mouse Club Story.

On March 10, 2011, Funicello's Encino, California, home caught fire. She suffered smoke inhalation, but was otherwise unharmed.

In 2012, CTV profiled Funicello as an update on her after she had spent fifteen years out of the public eye. The profile revealed that her disease had severely damaged her nervous system; Funicello had lost the ability to walk in 2004 and the ability to speak in 2009, and she now required round-the-clock care to survive. In the profile, Holt and Fabares discussed Funicello's current state, as well as the numerous medical interventions and treatments attempted to improve her condition.