Robin Williams Was Married Three Times — a Look Back at the Actor's Relationships

It is well-known that marriages in Hollywood usually fail, and the first two wives of Robin Williams, the late actor best known for "Mork & Mindy," are proof of that.

Williams was one of the funniest and most respected actors in Hollywood. Everything started in comedy clubs as he used to perform stand-up comedy shows. Eventually, he was discovered and invited to perform Mork, an alien, in a 1978 episode of "Happy Days."

After [Williams] became a movie star, he started having affairs.

ROBIN WILLIAMS' EARLY CAREER

From that point on, his career skyrocketed. Mork was so popular among the audience of the show that Williams got his own sitcom, "Mork & Mindy."

Working next to Pam Dawber, Williams captivated millions of people with his hilarious performance between 1978 and 1982, when the TV series was canceled.

It was also during that period that the late actor married his first wife, Valerie Velardi. She was also a comedian and actress, but her last appearance in a film was in 1980 when she co-starred with Williams in "Popeye."

The former couple met for the first time at a San Francisco tavern back in 1976. At the time, Williams was a bartender and Velardi was a waitress.

ROBIN WILLIAMS’ FIRST WIFE, VALERIE VELARDI

Velardi probably noticed that Williams had a knack for comedy, so she helped and encouraged him to try his luck as a professional comedian in Los Angeles. That's when he landed his gig as Mork.

In 1978, Robin Williams and Valerie Velardi tied the knot. Unfortunately, after he became a movie star, he started having affairs with different women, something that obviously deteriorated their relationship.

Their only son, Zachary, was born in 1983. After his birth, Velardi admitted that dealing with Williams' infidelity became a lot harder. She explained:

"Very attractive women throw themselves at men in his position. You'd have to be a saint to resist. Besides, neither of us was prepared for the sudden life shift."

In 1984, Williams started dating a cocktail waitress named Michelle Tish Carter, who, two years later, sued him. She claimed that he gave her herpes. Also in 1986, the actor and Marsha Garces, the live-in nanny that Velardi hired to take care of Zachary, began a relationship.

Velardi and Williams divorced in 1988, and one year later, he married Garces, who was already pregnant with Zelda, their daughter.

ROBIN WILLIAMS' SECOND SPOUSE, MARSHA GARCES

Initially, it was reported that Garces was Williams' mistress, but Velardi herself admitted that she and Williams had been separated for a year before Garces started dating him.

With Garces, Williams was married for two decades – she filed for divorce in 2008, and the process became final in 2010. Apart from Zelda, the former couple had Cody, born in 1991.

According to People, the reason behind their divorce was that their relationship never healed completely following Williams' alcohol relapse in 2006. Before that, he spent 20 years sober.

Even though he entered rehab to work on his issues, the trust between the ex-couple was "broken," and she was "hurt." If there was a silver lining in their divorce, it's that it was amicable.

ROBIN WILLIAMS' THIRD WIFE, SUSAN SCHNEIDER WILLIAMS

One year after the divorce process ended, in 2011, Robin Williams married his third and final wife, Susan Schneider Williams. Schneider was a graphic designer who was running the company Critical Eye Design.

Unfortunately, the former couple stayed married for only three years because, in August 2014, the actor took his own life. Williams was dealing with depression before dying, and in May 2014, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

However, an autopsy revealed that he didn't have Parkinson's but Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder that Schneider called "the terrorist" inside her late husband's brain. Robin Williams' death took a toll on the relationship between his kids and Schneider as they got involved in a bitter estate feud.

Everything was settled in 2015: Schneider got a fraction of Williams' $100-million estate and the possibility to live in their house in Tiburon, California. The house, though, will eventually be inherited by Williams' kids.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "help" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.