Actress and filmmaker Dyan Cannon was a huge star in the 1970s. She used to be married to Cary Grant and is mother to his only child, daughter Jennifer Grant. She was also linked to Johnny Carson and, *fun fact,* is such a huge LA Lakers fan that she’s considered the team’s second most-famous fan after Jack Nicholson. She sounds like she has a big personality and is a bit of a firecracker.
This past weekend, Dyan attended the Hollywood Beauty Awards, which recognize the best “hair, makeup, photography and styling” in the biz. Since her relationship with Carson was recently featured on a CBS News special about his life, people are suddenly interested in her love life again. As such, People asked Dyan, who is now 88 years old, if she is currently dating. As it turns out, Dyan is not only dating, she’s got multiple paramours, or as she referred to them, “friends with benefits.”
Dyan Cannon has an impressive relationship roster at the age of 88. The actress shared in a new interview that she is “of course” still dating — and even has “several special” people in her life.
“I have friends with benefits, yes,” she told People at the Hollywood Beauty Awards on Sunday.
Cannon did not reveal the identities of her numerous lovers, though she did reflect on her fling with Johnny Carson, who died at age 79 in 2005.
The “Heaven Can Wait” star raved about being featured in a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment about the late “Tonight Show” host, which aired last month.
“I rattled him, and I love that,” she recalled to People of their dynamic. “We love it when we rattle men who aren’t usually rattled, don’t we?”
Cannon divulged that Carson “loved” secretly dating her.
“We used to go to restaurants, and they’d shut down the entire restaurant for him,” she remembered, adding, “He was a special man. I’ve known a lot of special men. And there’s more to come.”
The ’70s star was famously married to Cary Grant from 1965 to 1968. She and the late “North by Northwest” star, who died in 1986 at age 82, welcomed daughter Jennifer Grant, now 59, in 1966.
“I never knew what was going to set him off next, and when he wasn’t at work he trailed me around the house, listing my shortcomings,” she wrote.
“I didn’t place a coaster under my water glass. I parked my car in the driveway crooked. I shouldn’t be so friendly to the postman because he might get the wrong idea, or to the maid because it was good to keep a distance.”
I freaking love this. She’s following in the same vein as 67-year-old Fran Drescher’s proud declaration a few weeks ago that she has a “little rotation” of FWB. I am loving how sex-positive these women are. They are doing their part in breaking taboos! I wonder if this is going to start some kind of lowkey trend in which reporters ask a question that tees up an answer for other celebrity women to admit that they have FWBs (but also leaves it so they don’t have to answer if they aren’t comfortable). That would not be something I had on my bingo card, but I’m not opposed to hearing about it. I love that Dyan’s making sure she still gets hers at almost 90. Good for her.
Below is a clip of Dyan on Johnny Carson’s show when he asks her about why she wasn’t that into him after a few dates. It’s HILARIOUS. Dyan definitely has that 70s star quality, with the beautiful smile, big laugh, and huge hair. I wasn’t familiar with her game before now, but I definitely have a date with Wikipedia, etc. to learn more.
Photos credit: Starface Photo/Cover Images, Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, IMAGO/mpi099/MediaPunch/Avalon, Getty
