From 1956 to 1985, Lear was wed to Frances, with whom he has two daughters, Kate and Maggie. After the pair's split, Frances launched a women's magazine called Lear's and penned a book about her life, The Second Seduction, though wrote little of her ex, with whom she said she remained cordial.
However, she did write that "the name and face and voice and character and personality of a Hollywood wife-of are so often unnoticed, not listened to, not admired, that in time she feels she does not exist,'' giving a glimpse into how she felt while married to her producer husband during those early years of his fame.
When the pair officially divorced in 1986, Frances walked away with a $112 million settlement.
Lear's first marriage, to Charlotte Rosen from 1943 to 1956, also ended in divorce and produced one child, daughter Ellen.