Aurora Starchild
Former President Ronald Reagan left behind quite a legacy. The actor-turned-politician had many passions beyond the White House. He stood up for Hollywood workers’ rights, set a precedent of honesty regarding mental health struggles, and fell deeply in love twice. He had two biological children with each of his wives and adopted a son. Here is what you need to know about Ronald Reagan’s kids.
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Ronald Reagan’s Second Daughter, Christine, Died as an Infant
Ronald Reagan’s first marriage was to Jane Wyman, a 3-time Golden Globe winner and Oscar-winning actress. Wyman was married and divorced five times: to two men before Reagan, and then twice to Frederick Karger. She had three children in total, all with Reagan.
Reagan and Wyman married in 1940 after previously co-starring in the 1938 rom-com Brother Rat and its 1940 sequel. They had two biological daughters, Maureen Elizabeth and Christine, and an adopted son, Michael Edward. Tragically, Christine passed away on June 27, 1947, the day after her birth, after she was born four months premature.
Maureen Reagan
Maureen was born on January 4, 1941, about a year after her parents married. She was raised in Los Angeles and later at Marymount Secondary School in Tarrytown, New York. Maureen was raised Roman Catholic after her mother converted to Catholicism, and briefly attended the Catholic Marymount University after high school. However, she left before graduating and went on to become a political activist.
Maureen Reagan tried unsuccessfully to run for co-chair of the Republican National Committee and the California State Senate. Despite being a Republican, she also advocated for pro-choice rights. After her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994, Maureen joined the Alzheimer’s Association board of directors.
Reagan married three times and divorced twice. Her first marriage to policeman John Filippone was fleeting, lasting about one year from 1961 to 1962. She married attorney David G. Sillis from 1964 to 1967. Her third husband was public relations CEO Dennis C. Revell in 1981. Reagan and Revell adopted Uganda-born daughter Margaret Mirembe in 2001 after serving as her guardians since 1994. Maureen remained with Revell until her death from skin cancer on August 8, 2001.
Michael Reagan
Michael Reagan was born as John Charles Flaugher on March 18, 1945. His biological father was a U.S. Army corporal and his mother, Irene, was an unmarried woman from Kentucky. Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman adopted Michael when he was still a baby.
Michael briefly attended the Catholic Loyola High School in Los Angeles until he was expelled. He finished high school at Judson School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Like his older sister Maureen, Michael enrolled in college but did not graduate. He studied at Arizona State University and then Los Angeles Valley College.
Michael Reagan is a man of many hats, much like his father. He has worked as a salesman, an actor, a TV show host, and a radio talk show host. He hosted The Michael Reagan Show, a nationally syndicated radio show, for nearly a decade. Reagan currently works as a columnist for Newsmax, a Republican strategist, and a conservative political commentator. He is the author of two books, both of which offer a hard but honest glimpse into past tragedies in his life, including being sexually abused at a summer camp and the struggles of being an adopted son.
Michael Reagan married twice. His first wife was Pamela Gail Putnam, from 1971 to 1972. His second wife is Colleen Sterns. Reagan and Sterns have two children, son Cameron and daughter Ashley.
Ronald Reagan Remarried to Nancy Davis After Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman filed for divorce from Ronald Reagan in 1948 and the divorce was finalized the next year. At the time, Reagan was serving his first term as president of the Screen Actors Guild. It would be years before he became a politician, but by the time he stepped foot in the White House, he was officially the country’s first divorcé. He remained the only U.S. President to be previously divorced until his much later successor, Donald Trump.
Reagan remarried to Nancy Reagan (née Robbins, later changed to Davis when she was adopted) in 1952. The couple remained together until Ronald Reagan’s death in 1994. Ronald was Nancy’s first and only husband.
Like Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, Nancy Reagan was also an actress. Known as Nancy Davis, she appeared in 23 film and TV shows between 1949 and 1986. Her first major contract was with MGM Studios.
Ronald and Nancy met in 1949 and began dating but kept things casual for the first three years. They married on March 4, 1952, in a private ceremony with only two witnesses in attendance. It’s been speculated that Nancy was pregnant at the time that they married.
Patricia Reagan / Patti Davis
Patricia Ann Reagan (also known as Patti Davis) was born on October 21, 1952, in Los Angeles, California. She spent her early years in LA but later graduated from high school at the Orme School in Arizona. Patti received a degree in journalism at Northwestern University and then attended the University of Southern California.
Patti changed her last name from Reagan to Davis because she identifies as a Democrat and wanted to separate herself from her father’s politics. Like her parents, Davis is an actress. She’s appeared on shows like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island a handful of films including Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1994, Davis posed as the cover girl for Playboy at age 42. The cover was considered incredibly controversial but was ultimately rewarding for Davis, as she’d previously been addicted to drugs and had spent years trying to better herself and get in shape. In 2011, Davis posed nude at age 58 for More Magazine.
These days, Davis is primarily known as a prominent journalist, author, and screenwriter. She’s worked for The New York Times, Newsweek, and Time, and wrote the screenplay for the Hallmark Channel movie Sacrifices of the Heart. Davis is also an advocate for the legalization of cannabis and an outspoken critic of racism. She was married to yoga teacher Paul Grilley from 1984 to 1990. She has not remarried, and she does not have children.
Ronald “Ron” Prescott Reagan
Ronald Reagan Junior was born on May 20, 1958, in Los Angeles, California. Like his brother Michael, Ron was once expelled — from The Webb School of California, a high school in Claremont. He attended Yale University for one year and dropped out in 1976 to become a ballet dancer.
According to Time, Ron’s parents didn’t go see him perform for many years. “It is widely known that Ron’s parents have not managed to see a single ballet performance of their son, who is clearly very good, having been selected to the Joffrey second company, and is their son nonetheless,” wrote Time in 1980. “Ron talks of his parents with much affection. But these absences are strange and go back a ways.” His parents saw him in a performance the following year and his father likened his son’s dancing to Fred Astaire.
Ron, like his sister Patti, veered left instead of right. He’s identified as an atheist since age 12. He’s worked in TV, primarily as a talk show host. Ron once hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and has also worked with Animal Planet, MSNBC, and the BBC. He has worked as a radio show host and a political analyst, promoting liberal views, and openly condemning many right-wing politicians. Reagan has also worked closely with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit which advocates for the separation of church and state.
Ron Reagan was married twice. His first wife was clinical psychologist Doria Palmieri. They married in 1980 but she sadly passed away in 2014 from neuromuscular disease. Reagan remarried in 2018 to Frederica Basagni. He has no children as of today.
