The husband-and-wife duo were America’s favorite couple until they weren’t.
If you’re a massive I Love Lucy fan, you may want to know about Desi Arnaz’s net worth and how it compared to his ex-wife (and former co-star), Lucille Ball, after their divorce.
Arnaz—whose full name is Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III—was born on March 2, 1917, in Santiago de Cuba in Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution of 1933, Arnaz’s father, Alberto Arnaz, was jailed and their home was confiscated. Alberto was released after six months when his brother-in-law, Alberto de Acha, intervened. Arnaz’s family then fled to Miami, where the I Love Lucy star attended St. Patrick Catholic High School in Miami Beach. After he graduated from high school, Arnaz joined a band called the Siboney Septet. The success of the group led Arnaz to start his own band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, which became a hit in New York City’s club scene. The band also led Arnaz to be cast in his first Broadway musical, Too Many Girls, in 1939. In 1940, Arnaz starred in the movie version of the show, alongside his future wife, Lucille Ball. The couple fell in love and married on November 30, 1940.
In 1948, Ball was cast as Liz Cooper, a wacky wife in the CBS Radio comedy show, My Favorite Husband. The show ran for 148 episodes. After the success of My Favorite Husband, Ball was asked by CBS to develop it for television, which she agreed if she could work with her real-life husband, Arnaz. Unimpressed by the pilot episode, CBS turned down a show with Ball and Arnaz, which led them to hit the road as a vaudeville act in which Ball played a zany housewife who tried to get into her husband’s show. After the success of the tour, CBS greenlit I Love Lucy, which went on to run for more than 100 episodes and be one of the most-watched shows in TV history.
Ball and Arnaz’s marriage was portrayed in the 2021 movie Being the Ricardos, in which Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem starred as the couple. The film was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. In an interview with Extra in December 2021, Kidman opened up about why she wanted to play Ball. “That is something that Javier and I want to honor,” she said. “But at the same time, you want it to be a true depiction of who they are so that people watching it go, ‘Oh, OK…’ Aaron’s really gone in there, he’s done them proud, but at the same time he has been very true to their spirits… They’re compelling, fascinating… people and at the same time—they are human.”
The story of Ball and Arnaz’s relationship was told in Amy Poehler’s 2022 documentary, Lucy and Desi, which dove into who they were as people in addition to Hollywood stars. “I knew about them as performers, not as people,” Poehler told Variety in 2021. “These two incredible outsiders worked hard to become powerful, influential figures at a time when women and immigrants were not running the system. But at the end of the day, the attempt was to tell a love story: Their long journey of falling in love, working, and staying in love with each other through thick and thin was echoed in their show.” Poehler continued, “And then to watch America’s most powerful couple — they created the idea of a power couple — split up after being on TV, as this example of how things will always be OK, it was interesting. So much is made of their work and comedy, and it should be. But I also think it is also an equal triumph to have a relationship that was the kind that they had. It is hard to maintain a working relationship, as well as a relationship with someone you love and is your partner in raising kids.”
So what is Desi Arnaz’s net worth and how did it compare to his ex-wife and I Love Lucy co-star, Lucille Ball? Read on for what we know about Desi Arnaz’s net worth before his death.