Mary Tyler Moore Married 15-Years-Younger Doctor She Called At 3 A.M. — He Still Feels Her Love 6 Years After Death

• Mary Tyler Moore's husband has recently revealed their love story.
• Despite a 15-year age difference, he became her true love after losing her only son.
• He continues to honor her six years after her death & still calls her "my Mary."

Mary Tyler Moore was the star of her show, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," but she also starred in many other titles through the years. She had acting credits in "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Rhonda," and "Ordinary People."

Unfortunately, after decades of gracing the screens, Moore died in 2017. Luckily, her husband, Dr. Robert Levine, has kept her memory alive by talking about what they meant to one another and how their love developed with time.

Moore and her husband were lucky to find each other. And even though he was fifteen years younger than her, their relationship quickly blossomed into something beautiful. For years they remained in love and made wonderful memories.

And now, Moore's husband has opened up about how they met and how he felt about their enduring love story. Levine described their relationship as easy and said he knew on their first date that it would develop into something amazing over time.

Levine is keeping his wife's legacy alive by working with the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, which aims to find a cure for complications associated with diabetes, of which Moore was a victim.

How Did Moore's Love Story With Levine Come To Be?

A recently released documentary explores Moore's life and her love story with her husband, who has given several interviews since the documentary premiered. The lovebirds were married for three decades, but their love story started by chance.

One night, Moore's mother was ill and needed a doctor. As fate would have it, Levine was on call so he checked on Moore's mother. At the end of the consult, as he was leaving the house, he told Moore that if she needed anything, she should phone him. Moore asked if "acute loneliness" was a good enough reason to need him, and he said it was the best reason to call him at 3 a.m. To Levine's surprise, Moore did call him later at 3 a.m.

While Levine was taken by Moore, he didn't view her as a star because he did not know how big her TV shows were. After all, he was in medical school and was focused on learning and not watching TV on Saturday nights.

Nevertheless, their relationship quickly became something special to them. And although Moore was married twice before, she often confessed that Levine was her first true love. On the other hand, Levine admitted it felt like an honor that Moore thought of him that way.

One of the moments in the documentary that showed the couple's love for one another was footage of Moore's bridal shower, where she talked about Levine making her a tuna fish sandwich.

Moore found the sandwich so special because Levine had made it, especially for her, without any thought of himself. The actress considered it Levine's first act of real love. And while Levine had never seen that video before the documentary premiered, he said:

"It's the sort of thing where the person you love wakes up in the middle of the night and is hungry. Well, what do you do? You go to the kitchen; you make them something. And that was the moment she says she realized she loved me."

Levine, one of the movie's executive producers, rifled through hours of footage stored in the basement so he could tell Moore's story the way she would have wanted. He called her "my Mary" and declared she was "still with [him] every day."

Regarding why they called the film "Being Mary Tyler Moore," Levine said it was because anything Moore did, she did it authentically and was always unashamedly herself, which was revolutionary at the time.

What Adversities Did Moore Face?

While Moore and Levine shared many happy years, the actress faced her fair share of struggles in her professional and personal life. Her first blow came in 1980 when she learned her 24-year-old son, Richie, had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was ruled an accident.

Moore's then-estranged husband, Grant Tinker, phoned Moore at 5 a.m. to tell her the heartbreaking news. He told her that if she was standing, she should sit down. He then relayed the harrowing news that Richie had passed away.

Moore's son was cremated, and the "Six Weeks" star spread his ashes in Owens River in California. Talking about that day, Moore shared:

"The water was clear and high as I knelt over it. I opened the container and emptied it into the rushing water. What was meant to be a prayer became an outraged demand. 'You take care of him,' I screamed at the sky."

Before Moore died, she had been hospitalized with pneumonia, and doctors placed her on a ventilator. All her illnesses in the days leading up to her death resulted from her diabetes. Moore suffered from childhood diabetes, and by the time she passed away, she had lost nearly all of her sight. She didn't even recognize people who had come to see and wish her well.

Apart from the physical challenges she endured, Moore also suffered from alcoholism. Yet her husband stood by her through everything. When she passed away, she was surrounded by family, friends, and Levine, whom she had been married to for 33 years.

Following her demise, Levine tried to convey what she meant to him in the documentary. He mentioned that he wanted people to see her importance and impact on the world and encourage people to be more like Moore in their own lives.

Levine acknowledged that his wife had never shied away from a challenge, and he felt that everyone should do the same. He also wanted people to stand up for themselves as Moore did.

Although all her family and friends knew that she would be dying, when the moment came, they were still as shocked as if the death had been sudden. Now, she is still remembered fondly by her husband and those close to her. She was an inspirational woman indeed.

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