"Later, I had another doomed romance. It was with Grover Asmus, the widower of one of my best friends, Donna Reed, who starred in It’s a Wonderful Life opposite Jimmy Stewart.
When she died in 1986, they’d been married for 12 years or so. After that, Grover and I stayed in touch and eventually started dating. We became romantically involved for about a year.
During that time, a friend of mine invited us on her yacht for a cruise of the Mediterranean. I’d wanted to have my own cabin but we had to occupy a suite together.
One evening, Grover stayed up later than I did and returned to our room very drunk.
He frightened me. So I ordered him out, telling him he’d have to bunk somewhere else on the ship. He was very upset about that. He went down the stairs to the main deck and actually jumped overboard. I heard the splash and went to wake up my friend, who woke up her husband, who woke up the captain. The crew managed to yank Grover out of the drink. Luckily, we weren’t out on the open seas.
Once Grover was safe, they took him ashore. He’d been a military man, so I was sure he could manage.
When I got back to Los Angeles, a very apologetic Grover came to my little house to pick up his luggage. He still had a bruise on his forehead from where he’d bumped into a wharf.
We never dated again but we remained friends. After all, he was the first man literally to fall overboard for me."