Personal Life
In 1958, he married his first wife, Marge Cooney, who divorced him in 1975. They have five children. He married his second (and present) wife, actress Marlo Thomas (daughter of Danny Thomas), in 1980. They have lived in Westport, Connecticut since 1986.
Donahue does not see himself as "a very good Roman Catholic," given that he did not want to have his first marriage annulled. He has elaborated that he "will always be a Catholic" but that he opposes what he sees as the Church's "antisexual theology." He has also said that he found Madalyn Murray O'Hair's message of atheism "very important." He has admitted that he is not permitted to receive the Blessed Sacrament, since the Church sees him as living in a state of adultery.
On November 10, 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited Donahue, along with former talk show hosts Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, Ricki Lake and Montel Williams as guests on her show. This was the first time that she had fellow talkers appear together since their programs left the air.
Read more about this topic: Phil Donahue
Famous quotes related to personal life:
“He hadn’t known me fifteen minutes, and yet he was ... ready to talk ... I was still to learn that Munshin, like many people from the capital, could talk openly about his personal life while remaining a dream of espionage in his business operations.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)