'The Honeymooners': Meet the Real Couples from the Classic TV Show

Generations of television viewers know The Honeymooners best for the "classic 39" episodes of the show that originally aired during the 1955 to 1956 television season and have been rerun ever since. Although presented before and after as skits as part of The Jackie Gleason Show, those sitcom versions became the ones that most people remember Brooklyn apartment building neighbors Ralph and Alice Kramden and Ed and Trixie Norton from, thanks to the performances of, respectively, Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph.

The Honeymooners was clearly the inspiration for classic animated series The Flintstones, and source of such iconic expressions as "to the moon" and "Why I oughta." The show always managed to touch on the struggles these, shall we say, less than affluent couples were going through, while never losing its sense of humor or failing to drive home the message that they loved each other and would always make things work. Unfortunately, as things turned out in real life, and with one exception, that wasn't always the case. What follows is a look at the real life loves of The Honeymooners couples.

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The three wives of Jackie Gleason

On The Honeymooners, Ralph Kramden was married to Alice, but in real life, Jackie Gleason's first wife was Genevieve Halford, who he married in 1936 and divorced in 1970. Together they had daughters Linda and Geraldine.

Wife number two was Beverly McKittrick, to whom he was wed in 1970 and from whom he was divorced five years later. In 1968 she had worked as a secretary at a country club where they had met, and they married just 10 days after the divorce from Halford was finalized.

But then, proving the adage correct that the third time was the charm, he walked down the aisle with Marilyn Taylor — a dancer from his variety television series, The Jackie Gleason Show — in 1975 and was with her until his death in 1987 at the age of 71.

Audrey Meadows was married twice

Alice Kramden, of course, was married to Ralph and really must have loved him, because she put up with an awful lot. In the case of the actress who portrayed her, Audrey Meadows, while the "Classic 39" episodes making up the show's sole season were in production, she married real-estate businessman Randolph Rouse in 1956, but their union only lasted two years.

No worries there, though, for true love came her way in 1961 when she became one with Robert F. Six, then the president of Continental Airlines, the locale of their wedding being Honolulu, Hawaii. They were together until his death in 1986. Audrey died on February 3, 1996 at age 73.

Art Carney was married three times, but to two women

Living upstairs to the Kramdens were best friends and married couple Ed Norton (Art Carney) and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph), with poor Ed frequently getting pulled into Ralph's lame-brain schemes.

Art Carney's marital life was certainly interesting. He walked down the aisle with high school sweetheart Jean Myers in 1940 and was with her until they divorced in 1965, the two of them parenting three children.

From there he married Barbara Isaac in 1966, divorcing her in 1977, and then remarrying Myers. He remained with her until his death on November 9, 2003, just shy of his 85th birthday.

Joyce Randolph was the only 'Honeymooner' to marry once

For her part, Joyce Randolph married actor, publisher and philanthropist Richard Lincoln Charles in 1955 and they were together for over 40 years until his death at the age of 74 in 1997. Joyce herself lived to the age of 99, passing away on January 13, 2024.

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