Does Desi Arnaz Jr. Have Kids? Yes, 2 Daughters (2026)

The Short Answer: Yes, Two Daughters

Desi Arnaz Jr. has two daughters. His eldest, Julia Arnaz, was conceived during a 1968 relationship with Susan Callahan-Howe — both were 15 at the time — and his paternity was proven in 1991. His younger daughter, Haley, is the daughter of his second wife, Amy Bargiel, from her previous marriage, whom Arnaz adopted.

Arnaz Jr., now 73, has lived most of his adult life outside the spotlight, and his daughters have been kept largely out of it too. What follows is the publicly documented record of his family.

Julia Arnaz: The 1968 Relationship

In 1968, a 15-year-old Desi Arnaz Jr. — already famous as the son of Lucy and Desi — had a relationship with Susan Callahan-Howe, also 15. She became pregnant, and their daughter Julia was born.

For more than two decades, the question of Julia’s paternity hung over the story. In 1991, paternity testing proved that Desi Arnaz Jr. was Julia’s father, settling the matter publicly. It is one of the more quietly dramatic chapters in the Ball-Arnaz family saga — a teenage pregnancy, a 23-year question mark, and a scientific answer.

The 1991 resolution was widely covered at the time — a tabloid saga with a laboratory ending. In the decades since, Julia has kept an exceptionally low profile, and verified public information about her is limited to the paternity record and her daughter Desiree. The family’s instinct for privacy, it seems, runs deep.

Haley: The Adopted Daughter

Arnaz’s second daughter, Haley, came into his life through his second marriage. Haley is the daughter of Amy Laura Bargiel from her previous marriage, and Arnaz adopted her after wedding Amy in 1987.

Haley has remained almost entirely out of the public eye — no verified public biography, no press presence — and this article respects that: her existence and her adoption are matters of public record; the rest is hers.

Marriage 1: Linda Purl

Arnaz’s first marriage was to actress Linda Purl, whom he wed in 1979. The marriage was brief, ending in divorce in 1980. The couple had no children together.

Purl went on to a substantial television career of her own — Happy Days and later a recurring role on The Office — while Arnaz retreated further from the industry. The brevity of the marriage, barely a year, places it firmly in the lost-boy chapter of his life: famous parents, a hit band behind him, and no idea yet that Boulder City was waiting.

Marriage 2: Amy Bargiel

On October 8, 1987, Arnaz married Amy Laura Bargiel. It was the defining relationship of his adult life: the couple settled in Boulder City, Nevada, far from Hollywood, where Arnaz bought and restored the historic Boulder Theatre in 1997.

Amy died of cancer in 2015, at age 63. Arnaz has not remarried. The couple’s nearly three decades together — quiet, civic-minded, rooted in a small desert town — stand in marked contrast to the tumult of his youth.

Amy was central to the Boulder City project: together they threw themselves into civic life, with the historic Boulder Theatre — purchased in 1997 and painstakingly restored — as their shared mission. Friends from those years describe a couple happiest working side by side on something tangible, far from any red carpet. Her 2015 death, after a battle with cancer, ended the longest and most stable chapter of his life.

Boulder City: A Quiet Life Away From Hollywood

For a man born into the most famous family in television history, Desi Arnaz Jr. chose an unlikely second act: small-town Nevada. In Boulder City, he became known less as Lucy’s son than as the guy who saved the local theater — purchasing the Boulder Theatre in 1997 and restoring it as a community landmark.

It is there, as of October 2026, that the 73-year-old still lives: a retired actor and musician who walked away from the business and, by most accounts, never looked back.

Locals describe a man who shows up: to civic events, to the theater he saved, to the rhythms of a town of 16,000 people where nobody treats him like television royalty. It is the inverse of a Hollywood ending — a celebrity who used his inheritance, financial and otherwise, to buy quiet.

The theater itself — a lovingly restored historic venue in the heart of Boulder City — hosts community productions, concerts, and film screenings, and Arnaz’s name is on it less as a celebrity than as a neighbor. For a man who could have traded on being Lucille Ball’s son for the rest of his life, the choice to be Boulder City’s theater guy instead might be the most telling detail in his biography.

He is occasionally spotted at local events, but interviews are rare and the Hollywood press has largely left him alone — an arrangement that seems to suit all parties. At 73, Desi Arnaz Jr. has achieved something his famous parents never could: anonymity.

Family Tragedy: Granddaughter Desiree

The Arnaz family has known public sorrow as well. Arnaz’s granddaughter Desiree S. Anzalone — Julia’s daughter — died of breast cancer on September 27, 2020, at just 31. Her death was covered by People and other outlets, and it underscored how much of this family’s story has played out under the weight of early loss.

The Legacy: Dino, Desi & Billy; Being the Ricardos

Beyond family, Arnaz’s own career deserves its coda. As a teenager he was the drummer and vocalist for Dino, Desi & Billy, the pop trio with Dean Paul Martin and Billy Hinsche — and he is now the group’s sole surviving member. The trio scored real hits in the mid-1960s: “I’m a Fool” reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965, and “Not the Lovin’ Kind” also charted, making three teenagers — the sons of Dean Martin, Desi Arnaz, and orchestra leader Hinsche — into genuine pop stars. Martin died in 1987 and Hinsche in 2021, leaving Arnaz the last man standing from a band that once shared bills with the biggest acts of the decade.

He acted through the 1970s and 1980s, including the Streets of San Francisco appearance pictured above, a recurring presence on his mother’s Here’s Lucy, and a role in Robert Altman’s ensemble film A Wedding (1978).

The shadow he grew up under was enormous: I Love Lucy (1951–1957) remains one of the most beloved sitcoms ever made, and Desilu — the studio his parents built — pioneered the rerun and the multi-camera sitcom. Arnaz Jr. spent his adult life at a careful distance from that machinery, which makes his 2021 return to it so poignant.

In 2021, he served as an executive producer on Being the Ricardos, Aaron Sorkin’s film about his parents — a final, fitting stewardship of the Ball-Arnaz legacy by the son who lived it.

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