Doris Day Believed ‘Everything Happens for a Reason’ Despite Her Lifetime of Heartbreak

Actress Doris Day never had luck with love. After her four marriages to Al Jordan, George Weidler, Martin Melcher and Barry Comden ended in divorce, Doris had to do her best to look on the bright side of things.

“I think you have to try to stay positive despite life’s ups and downs,” the Pillow Talk star exclusively told Closer Weekly two months before she died in May 2019 at age 97. “I believe that everything happens for a reason and so many good things came out of the bad times.”

In the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now, Jackie Joseph, who was the actress’ costar on The Doris Day Show tells Closer her friend “never talked about any of the grief she was going through.” In fact, “She was always professional, fun and her attitude was, ‘Let’s just have a happy day.’”

Doris was a pro at hiding her pain. She never even complained when her third husband, Martin, left her $500,000 in debt and under contract to star in a television show he never told her about. “The series began very shortly after Marty died,” Jackie says about The Doris Day Show, which premiered in 1968. “The only thing she ever said to me about him was: ‘Well, I sure can pick ’em!’”

Although Doris didn’t find happiness in her marriages, she did have it with her record producer son, Terry Melcher. However, when he died in 2004 from Melanoma at age 62, it was hard for the blonde bombshell to move forward. But like always, she had to find the strength she needed to put the past behind her.

“The only thing she ever really wanted was to have a happy marriage and a happy family life,” says David A. Kaufman, author of Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door. “And it’s the one thing she never had.”

When Doris died from Pneumonia, she gave all of her belongings to the Doris Day Animal Foundation, which she founded in 1978. “She would be thrilled to know that literally thousands of animals will have a better life because of her,” Bob Bashara, a retired veterinarian who continues Doris’ animal welfare work has said.

If anything’s for certain, it’s that Doris’ memory lives on in her work!

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