Greer Garson with her new husband, Richard Ney, in 1943.


 For both it was a second marriage. If ever there was a case of, ‘’Don’t do it Missus, for God’s sake don’t do it!’’ it was here.


Richard was 12 years, possibly 15, the junior of Greer and had played her son in Mrs. Miniver which is when they began their relationship. She wrote, rather primly, in her autobiography, "I went dancing with Mr. Ney, and I had the most beautiful time.” Under orders from the studio head, Louis B. Mayer, they kept things secret till the movie was shown. He feared there would be bad publicity over a ‘mother dating her son.’ He was correct as there was some bad publicity. One magazine wrote, ‘’It’s the common belief of all mankind that the man should be as old, or older, than the woman.’’ To help take the bad look of it the studio issued a statement saying there was only a three year age gap hoping that wouldn’t look quite so bad.

It was not a popular marriage with Greer’s mother either. She didn’t approve of the young man and didn’t like him one bit. She was hard to please and hadn’t approved of Greer’s first husband either. Though this dislike of Richard didn’t stop her from living with Greer and Richard. That must have been really awkward.


Shortly after the marriage Richard joined the navy and was shipped overseas. After his service things went bad very quickly. Greer remained a star while his movie career was derailed and this upset him. To help things improve Greer took time off, but it didn’t help. Divorce was announced in 1947.


During the hearing she described Richard's emotional abuse, claiming that he would regularly call her a "has-been" or make fun of her age. He had once kicked in the bathroom door, while she was inside. Richard claimed the constant presence of his mother-in-law was very off-putting.


There was a sequel to Mrs. Miniver in 1950, The Miniver Story, in which her son had disappeared. He was simply eradicated from her real life as well as her celluloid life.


No tears for Richard though. He left acting and became a millionaire investment advisor.


Greer also struck lucky as at the end of her career she married a fantastically wealthy man and they both lived happily ever after. This time Mother approved.

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