Real-life partnerships of The Jeffersons cast often echoed their on-screen romances

People reports that the real-life relationships of The Jeffersons cast often paralleled the sitcom, which aired for 11 seasons from 1975 to 1985.

Isabel Sanford, who played Louise Jefferson, had three children with ex-husband William “Sonny” Richmond before the couple separated; Sanford later said the marriage “wasn’t a good marriage” and she moved with her children to California in 1960, and her ex-husband died a month after that move, she told Ebony. Roxie Roker, who portrayed Helen Willis, married Sy Kravitz in 1962, and the couple welcomed son Lenny Kravitz in 1964; Roker and Kravitz divorced in 1985 after Lenny said he discovered his father had an extramarital affair, and Roker died in 1995.

Franklin Cover was married to Mary Bradford Stone from Jan. 30, 1965, and they had two children; Cover died in 2006. Zara Cully was married to James Brown Sr. from 1914 and had four children; she died in 1978. Berlinda Tolbert married CBS producer Bob Reid 11 days after they met on Valentine’s Day 1979 and later stopped acting in 2013, and Marla Gibbs split with her ex-husband Jordan (who died in 2001) but remained friends and has posted tributes; Gibbs attended the American Black Film Festival Honors in February 2025, where she received the Hollywood Legacy Award, according to the cited accounts.

Key Topics

Culture, The Jeffersons, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker, Franklin Cover, Marla Gibbs