Gene Hackman met Faye Maltese in 1955 while living with fellow struggling actors at the time, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall. Maltese and Hackman married the following year, according to AmoMama, and had three children — Christopher, Elizabeth, and Leslie. Being a busy actor, Hackman was often traveling for large stretches of time, making fatherhood tricky.
“I lost touch with my son in terms of advice early on. Maybe it had to do with being gone so much, doing location films when he was at an age where he needed support and guidance,” he admitted to GQ. “It was very tough for me to be gone for three months and then come home and start bossing him around.” After 30 years of marriage, Hackman and his wife split up for undisclosed reasons. As the couple divorced, the “French Connection” star met Betsy Arakawa at a gym in California.
The pianist from Hawaii was 30 years younger than Hackman, but after seven years of dating, they tied the knot in 1991, per Married Biography. They are still together after three decades, enjoying Hackman’s stress-free retirement. It appears that stepping away from acting has also brought him closer to his family. “He wishes he’d been around more for his children,” a source told Closer Weekly. “But now he’s close with them and their kids.” Since his children have stayed out of the public eye, it is unknown how many grandchildren the legendary actor has.
