Nancy Sinatra Opens Up About Frank Sinatra, "Sister" Mia Farrow and Ronan Farrow Paternity Rumor

Nancy made her comments to CBS Sunday Morning

By Corinne Heller Apr 02, 2015 3:24 PMTags
Mia Farrow, Ronan Farrow, Nancy SinatraD Dipasupil/FilmMagic/YouTube

Nancy Sinatra says the idea that late dad and iconic crooner Frank Sinatra is the biological father of Mia Farrow's son Ronan Farrow is "nonsense" but doesn't appear to bear a lot of ill will toward her former stepmother for suggesting it.

Nancy Jr., 74, made her comments in a segment of a CBS Sunday Morning interview that was posted online on Wednesday, days before the Sunday premiere of the HBO documentary Sinatra: All Or Nothing at All. In 2013, Mia, the singer and Oscar winner's third wife, was asked in a Vanity Fair interview if Ronan was Frank Sr.'s son, to which she responded, "Possibly." Ronan is now 27 and was born about 20 years after the two split. However, he does bear a strongresemblance to the crooner.

"Mia's son? Oh, nonsense," Nancy Jr. told CBS Sunday Morning. "He would just laugh it off. We didn't laugh it off because it was affecting my kids, you know. They were being questioned about it and we all knew it was nonsense."

"I was kind of cranky with Mia for even saying, 'Possibly,' she added. "I was cranky with her for saying that because she knew better, you know, she really did. But she was making a joke! And it was taken very serious and was just silly, stupid."

Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images/Jemal Countess/Getty Images

Mia has not responded. Ronan, who was born Satchel O'Sullivan Farrow, is the actress' fourth biological child and the only one she gave birth to while she was in a relationship with Woody Allen. She has three biological children with ex-husband André Previn and had throughout her life adopted 10 children, according to Vanity Fair. She and Allen split in 1992.

Nancy Jr. is the daughter of Frank's first wife, Nancy Barbado. The couple had another daughter, Tina Sintatra, now 66, and son, Frank Sinatra Jr., now 71, who were the crooner's only known children. Nancy Jr. had told Vanity Fair that that Ronan "is a big part of us, and we are blessed to have him in our lives." She also said that "from the early days until now, we have been like sisters. My mother is also very fond of her. We are family and will always be."

Nancy Jr. made similar comments about the actress in her interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

"We loved Mia," she told the outlet. "Mia was one of our...like a sister and we had a good time, Tina and Mia and I did."

Frank Sr. and Nancy Sr. divorced in 1951, after which the singer and Oscar winner soon wed actress Ava Gardner. They divorced 1957. He and Mia were married for two years in the '60s.

"Daddy said, 'I'm not sure it's gonna last very long. A couple of years, maybe,' he said. 'But I feel like I have to do this,'" Nancy Jr. told CBS Sunday Morning, regarding Mia. "We said, 'Great. She's a great girl.' And I think, the truth be told, I think he didn't want her to be suffering because of him and she was being, her name was being bandied about in the press and there were paparazzi everywhere. Well, I'm not saying that's the only reason but I think that was part of it. I think it was very important to him that she be presented as a lady and not be thought of as something other than just that."

"Of course, that's my theory," she added. "I've never even talked to Mia about it. I don't know."

Watch her interview below.

Frank Sr. wed his fourth and latest wife, Barbara Marx, in 1976 and remained married to her until his death at age 82 in 1998.

Ronan attended Sinatra's funeral, along with his mother, Nancy Jr., and Nancy Sr., Vanity Fair had reported. As for the paternity comments, Ronan had told Vulture, "You know, I wasn't there, so I don't have a lot more to offer than you."

Allen, Frank Sr.'s widow and his other two children have also dismissed the notion that Ronan is the crooner's son.

"The article is so fictitious and extravagantly absurd that he is not going to comment," the actor's publicist told the Hollywood Reporter in 2013.

"I can't hardly believe that," Barbara had told The Desert Sun. It's just a bunch of junk. There's always junk written—lies that aren't true."

Tina was quoted as telling Showbiz411 in comments published on Wednesday that it "couldn't be" true, adding, "Frank had a vasectomy before that. I don't know whose son Ronan is."

In 2013, Frank Jr. said in response to Farrow's comments in Vanity Fair, "It was a joke," according to the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph.

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