Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball

They met in 1940 on the set of Too Many Girls, an RKO Pictures musical comedy in which she'd won the leading role and he was the bandleader.At the time, Ball was a 28-year-old 'contract player' who was signed to the production company and had starred in a string of its films. Cuban-born Arnaz was 23, and reportedly engaged.When they first clapped eyes on one another wearing their filming makeup, they weren't sold. However, that soon changed, and Arnaz asked Ball out for a date "that very night".Ball developed a strong attachment to Arnaz. She "always wanted to please" him and was "very old-fashioned" when it came to their relationship.

In November 1940, just six months after they met, the couple eloped. Even Ball admitted it was a bold move.However they married though she had found Arnaz's playboy reputation "intriguing" at the time.However, their married life didn't exactly get off to a blissful start.Arnaz continued band touring the country, requiring extended stretches on the road, as Ball remained in Los Angeles and built her Hollywood career. Even when they were in the same city, their conflicting work schedules meant they barely saw one another.Reconciling after the near-divorce of 1944, the couple resolved to seek out more work projects that would allow their professional lives to overlap. Six years later, the perfect opportunity arose.

Between 1947 and 1950, Ball starred in a radio series with CBS called My Favourite Husband alongside Richard Denning. It had been a success, and in 1950 the network approached her with the idea of adapting the show for television, then a new format.When it came to casting her on-screen husband, Ball pitched Arnaz — her way of keeping her husband "off the road" so they could spend more time together.After initial hesitation over Arnaz's strong Cuban accent, network executives agreed to cast him. Subsequently, the couple launched their production company Desilu and created the sitcom that would make them household names.

On July 17, 1951, three months before I Love Lucy hit screens, Ball and Arnaz welcomed their first child, Lucie. The couple endured several miscarriages before their daughter was born, and according to a friend, Ball believed a child would hold their marriage together.In a way, she was right; Arnaz's notorious womanising was said to have been "alleviated" when Lucie was born, and he stopped the habit.

From its debut on October that year, I Love Lucy was a hit. The Emmy-winning series ran until 1957, the most-watched show in the US in several of those years, and was followed by three seasons of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, comprised of one-hour specials.

When Ball learned she was expecting another child in 1952, her pregnancy was incorporated into the show. The air date of the episode 'Lucy Goes to the Hospital' was scheduled to coincide with the delivery of Ball and Arnaz's son Desi Jr on January 19, 1953.

Despite their on-screen success, Ball and Arnaz's marriage was far from rosy behind the scenes.Their daughter Lucie recalled her parents "fighting all the time" as she and Desi Jr. grew up, with "a lot of anger and screaming".By 1960 the actress had had enough and filed for divorce once and for all. "It got so bad that I thought it would be better for us not to be together," she reportedly said in court.This also spelt the end of the I Love Lucy era, with The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour wrapping up that same year. Ball later bought Arnaz out of their company Desilu.

Despite the mess of their marriage, Ball and Arnaz managed to maintain a friendship in the years following their final separation.Ball and Arnaz were both "very unhappy" about their separation, and that neither "ever got over it". "She always loved him. And there's no question that he loved her always.Ball saw Arnaz for the final time days before he died of lung cancer on December 2, 1986. According to their daughter, his final words to his former wife were, "I love you too, honey. Good luck with your show."