Dyan Cannon Opens Up About Her Relationship With Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for 30 years, sparked the careers of many stars and became close friends with celebrities including actress Dyan Cannon. The pair even dated for a while and despite ultimately splitting up, Cannon doesn’t have any ill will for the late star. In a new interview with CBS News, 88-year-old Cannon was interviewed about Carson. While some found him aloof, she said he was anything but. She described him as “Warm, open, willing. I’ve never known anyone like him. I’ve never known anyone like Johnny.”
Cannon, who was married to Cary Grant from 1965 to 1968, compared the two men. She said, “Cary was more of an enigma. Much more of a, ‘Can I approach him or can’t I?’ But people would approach Johnny as if he were family. There was nobody as big a star as Johnny.”
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In 1985, Cannon appeared in an episode of his show and the two flirted the entire time and reminisced about going out together in the past. It seemed that the door was not shut on their romance but the two did not end up reconnecting in that way.
She added, “How do I describe a relationship where you’re so intimate with somebody, and yet, you haven’t been intimate physically? We were closer than that.” When asked if it was a love affair, she said, “Yes, absolutely, a love affair. Absolutely. Real love. Physically, we were never together. But spiritually, we were.”
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Other stars have been discussing Carson as he is the subject of a new biography called Carson the Magnificent by Mike Thomas, started by his late friend Bill Zehme. Thomas shared, “Johnny Carson was the biggest star in America. Movie stars, rock stars, I don’t think anybody was bigger than Johnny, because he was on night after night after night.” Will you be reading the book?
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