Ernie Kovacs - Personal Life - First Marriage

First Marriage

Kovacs and his first wife, Bette Wilcox, were married on August 13, 1945. When the marriage ended, he fought for custody of their children, Elizabeth ("Bette") and Kip Raleigh ("Kippie"). The court awarded Kovacs full custody upon determining that his former wife was mentally unstable. The decision was extremely unusual at the time, setting a legal precedent. Wilcox subsequently kidnapped the children, taking them to Florida. After a long and expensive search, Kovacs regained custody. These events were portrayed in the 1984 film, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, which earned an Emmy Award nomination for its writer, April Smith.

Kovacs' first wife made a legal attempt to gain custody of her two daughters shortly after his death. She began August 2, 1962 by claiming $500,000 was her share of Kovacs' estate and charging her ex-husband had abducted the girls in 1955; Kovacs was granted legal custody of his daughters in 1952. On August 30, she filed an affidavit claiming Edie was "unfit" to care for the girls. Both Bette and Kippie testified they wanted to stay with Edie. Kippie's testimony was very emotional; in it she referred to Edie as "Mommy" and her birth mother as "the other lady." Upon hearing the verdict that the girls would remain in their home, Edie Adams broke down, saying, "This is what Ernie would have wanted. Now I can smile." Elizabeth Kovacs' reaction was, "I'm so happy I can hardly express myself.", after learning she and her sister would not need to leave Edie.