Meet Dick Van Dyke’s history-making girlfriend of 33 years — a romance that began as an affair

As a teenager in West Plains, Missouri, a young Dick met Margie Willett. The couple soon fell in love, and tied the knot on a radio show called Bride and Groom in 1948.

At the time, Dick was working at the Chapman Hotel, years before he’d find success on screen or stage, and, as the actor put it in his 2016 memoir Keep Moving: “We exchanged our vows in front of a minister and two radio microphones while 15 million people listened!”

The couple welcomed four children together, Christian, Barry, Stacy and Carrie Beth. However, unlike Dick, Margie never enjoyed the spotlight, and struggled with a prescription drug addiction during the later years of their marriage.

Actress, singer and dancer Michelle Triola was born in Los Angeles in 1932. While her credits weren’t extensive as a performer, she did appear in several notable productions, including the original Broadway version of Flower Drum Song in 1958 as a dancer, the 1965 film Ship of Fools, and the TV show Diagnosis: Murder.

From 1965 to 1971, she was in a live-in relationship with Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin, even legally changing her surname to “Marvin.” When the couple split, she sued the actor for financial compensation and division of property similar to what would be awarded to spouses.

Initially dismissed due to their relationship not being legally binding, a 1976 decision by the California Supreme Court awarded $104,000 to Michelle for “rehabilitation purposes.” The case was considered a landmark ruling for the rights of unmarried cohabiting partners.

In fact, the term “palimony” was coined during the trial, derived from “pal” and “alimony,” denoting the kind of financial right Michelle asked for. Her ask for half of the $3.6 million in assets he’d acquired during their relationship was ultimately denied.

Dick and Michelle came in contact when she worked as a secretary for his agent. After his wife Margie’s move to recede from the spotlight following a hospitalization for her addiction, Dick began an affair with Michelle in 1976.

“She was easy to talk to, she understood me,” the Mary Poppins star wrote in his memoir. “At the time, Michelle was suing actor Lee Marvin, with whom she had a six-year relationship.”

“I was drawn into a relationship,” he confessed, admitting that their respective addictions (he struggled with alcoholism) contributed to the distance between them. “I was involved with a woman other than my wife. It was unbelievable. I was writhing in guilt. By 1976 I had to do something. I needed to be honest.”

Soon after, the actor eventually came clean to his wife, and they separated. After a years-long separation, they finally divorced in 1984. By this point, Michelle and Dick were living together, and embarked on an official romance that would last for decades. The couple were together until Michelle’s death in 2009 from lung cancer. She reportedly died in the home they shared at the age of 76.