Ann-Margaret, a Swedish-American actress, was married to actor Roger Smith from 1967 until his death. In addition, he was her manager.

The Hollywood actress previously had a year-long relationship with legendary musician Elvis Presley. Further information on Ann’s marriage to Margaret and her family may be found here.

When Ann-Margaret appeared in her debut feature film, “Pocketful of Miracles,” in 1961, she met her future husband, producer Smith.

She had not yet established herself as the beautiful female lead recognized for roles opposite Hollywood icons like Dick Van Dyke and Elvis Presley.

Smith, who was in his late twenties at the time, was acting in “77 Sunset Strip” when he confessed to New York magazine in 1976 that every other lady he met was smitten with him, informing the publication of his initial impression with Margret:

“Every other lady I met was crushing on me.” Yet, this innocent, fresh-faced beauty only responded to me when I spoke to her, and she ignored me the rest of the time. “I was blown away.”

They wouldn’t see each other again for another five years. Margret’s career had advanced by then, and Smith had divorced his wife of nine years, Australian actress Victoria Shaw.

They began dating when Smith invited her to a nightclub in San Francisco where he was performing. The next day, the screenwriter took his future wife out to supper, followed by a ride on his private jet. In 1994, Ann-Margret told the New York Times:

“On the third date, I knew I was going to marry the man I married.”
However, her parents were against the romance, mostly because Smith was still legally married. It didn’t stop the couple from marrying in a civil ceremony in Las Vegas two years after his divorce was finalized.

Smith, 34, and Ann-Margret, 26, married on May 9, 1967, in a cigarette-smoke-filled suite at the Riveria Hotel. The bride once told People:

“This is not how I imagined my wedding.” Everyone believed I was pregnant since I was weeping the entire time. “But we succeeded.”

Following the wedding, the couple shifted their emphasis to more vital matters. He assisted his wife in repaying debts totaling more than her annual earnings in two years.

He was not only in love with Ann-Margret, but he also believed in her brilliance and was proud of her work. Not long after, he began to offer to be her manager.

Smith claimed that acting no longer satisfied him and that his wife has “raw ability.” The great distances between them aided in making a final choice, which he eventually revealed:

“For the first time in my life, I felt joyful when I met Ann-Margret.” “I couldn’t live without Ann-Margret once I met her, and she, shockingly, couldn’t live without me.”

They were not who they appeared to be in public; they were behind closed doors. Ann-Margret was considered to be more fragile than she appeared, and her husband was not as powerful as he appeared. They were completely reliant on one another.

The “Bye Bye Birdie” star allegedly had a bond with Smith similar to her mother’s relationship with her spouse. Ann-Margret regularly deferred to Smith. When it came to her work, though, she got her way quietly.

He appeared to have become her perfect parent. Smith, on the other hand, had little public identity without his lovely wife.

He grew comfortable with being clingy after giving up his job and goals to monitor hers. Smith was the right match for Ann-Margret. He was meticulous in his preparation and had a keen business sense.

She previously reminisced about living with her loving spouse for three years before trusting him enough to let him take over her profession. The 81-year-old acknowledged she was slow to trust others. Smith revealed the following about his wife:

“Her motivations were greater than mine.” My objectives have shifted several times, yet she set out to be exactly who she is. “She got it.”

Smith moved to screenwriting after leaving acting to spend more time with his wife. Yet he quickly transitioned into his full-time role as Ann’s mentor-manager-father. Margret’s

Smith revealed that he frequently expressed boredom with acting, but he was also lonely. He revealed that Ann-Margret was different when he met her:

“She made me a better person than anyone I’d ever met.” She desired that I emulate her father, and I desired to do so for her.
“It sounds corny, but it’s true: doing what she wanted made me love myself a lot more.” “Being with her was more essential than my early ambitions of being a renowned actor,” he went on.

Ann-Magret became addicted to drugs and alcohol after being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Carnal Knowledge” in 1971.

A year later, she fell off an elevated platform on stage while performing in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, breaking her left arm, cheekbone, and jawline.

Smith came to her aid after piloting a stolen jet from Burbank, California, and brought her to UCLA doctors.

Ann-Margret was unable to work for 10 weeks since her cosmetic restoration surgery required her jaws to be wired shut. An earlier story stated that she had shattered her kneecap, which might jeopardize her dance career.

Yet, sooner or later, she returned to the stage looking almost completely normal. Following that, the couple wanted to have children together. Smith had three children from a previous marriage. In October 1985, the “52 Pick-Up” star disclosed that she and her husband had been trying to have a kid for thirteen years.

They even tried using a fertility pump and an experimental gadget that pumped a hormone into her stomach to help her ovulate.

Despite the fact that Ann-Margret, then 44, and her husband of eighteen years had children, she still yearned for her own after years of failure: “The point is, if I intended to have a child, I will have one.” I will accept whatever my higher power believes is best for me. “I know it seems overly simple, but I believe in the serenity prayer.”

“God, grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the bravery to change what I can, and the intelligence to distinguish between the two,” the singer concluded.

In a July 2014 interview with Interview Magazine, Ann-Margret was asked if she adopted Smith’s children and said, “The evil stepmother of the west.”

She promised to be a disciplinarian and conveyed the ideals the youngsters already knew. When asked what she learned from her parents earlier in life, Ann-Margret said,

“Respect.” They were three, six, and seven years old when I met them, and they are no more. Two of them are physicians. Yeah, I’m not going to get into it because it’s extremely personal.

Tracy, her stepdaughter, is now 65 years old. Dallas, his stepson, is 61, and Jordan, his older brother, is 64. To this day, their stepmother remains close to all of them.

Meanwhile, Smith, the family patriarch, had been suffering for more than two decades with myasthenia gravis, a nerve system illness that eventually went into remission.

Smith died on June 4, 2017, at the age of 84. He died in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a serious disease for several years. He is survived by his wife, Ann-Margret, and his three children, with whom she remains close.