Blond bombshell Loni Anderson — who died Aug. 3 from an undisclosed illness two days shy of her 80th birthday — proved that the best revenge is living well by thriving after the end of her nightmare marriage to Hollywood dreamboat Burt Reynolds.
The WKRP in Cincinnati star got hitched to Burt in 1988 but five years later the estranged couple were locked in a mudslinging divorce, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Loni accused her Stroker Ace costar of being a hot-tempered pill-popper who terrorized her physically and emotionally. She even claimed the Smokey and the Bandit hero once gave her a gun and told her to end her life.
Burt, who suffered a fatal heart attack at 82 in 2018, insisted he never abused Loni. But the former Florida State football standout once admitted to getting hooked on painkillers following back surgery, per Reuters.
The exes, who adopted son Quinton during their doomed union, finalized their split in 1995, with Burt reportedly paying her a $2 million settlement — plus $47,000 in monthly child support payments.
However, the screen stud didn’t cough up all of the cash until 2015 when Loni dragged him to court according to TMZ, causing him to finally cut his former missus a check for $154,520.
When Burt passed away, his will stated that he “intentionally” omitted Quinton from his estimated $5 million estate, claiming he’d provided for him during his lifetime through a trust.
Still, Quinton, now 36, and Loni, who had eventually reconciled with Reynolds, spoke at Burt’s funeral service in North Palm Beach, Fla.
Meanwhile, according to THR, seven years earlier, Loni had bounced back from heartache to marry folk singer Bob Flick. And though she won a permanent place in TV history as brainy beauty Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP, which ran from 1978 to 1982, Loni continued to act and amassed 65 roles during her career — including the 2023 Lifetime movie Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas.
