In 1983, Mary Tyler Moore decided to do more than give thanks — she said, “I do” to her much younger beau.
On Nov. 23, 1983 — Thanksgiving eve — the sitcom star, 46, married Dr. S Robert Levine, 29, at The Pierre Hotel in New York City. It was a private ceremony attended by only a few close friends and family.
For the occasion, the actress wore a peach-hued dress that she transformed with vintage lace, turning it into her own unique creation. Their cake had a turkey topper, and Moore’s former co-star, Valerie Harper, was a bridesmaid.
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The couple met in 1980 when Levine, a cardiologist at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, was treating Moore’s mother. At the time, he had no idea his patient’s daughter was a star.
“[Thanksgiving Eve] fit us,” Levine told Fox News Digital. “It was a little different, and yet it made so much sense. It was a day for giving thanks for the abundance with which we have been blessed.”
It was a union that lasted until Moore died in 2017 at age 80. The secrets behind their lasting marriage, according to Levine, were surprisingly simple.
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“It was trusting in the strength of our love for one another,” he explained. “It was finding a shared passion and pursuing it together, acceptance that we each had independent paths to pursue as well as a life together, and doing our best to always remain in a state of gratitude.”
Through Moore’s most difficult days, Levine never wavered — he stood firmly by her side when she needed him most.
“Among the many complications of diabetes from which Mary suffered, it was the loss of her vision from diabetic retinal disease that had the greatest negative impact on her life,” said Levine. “She was rendered unable to do the things she loved most — read and dance. Dancing was her true joy, and diabetic retinal disease stole that joy from her.”
“But despite this, she remained optimistic,” Levine continued. “She believed anything was possible, that research would someday find a cure. She greeted each day and every challenge with a smile and determination to overcome.”
Levine’s love for Moore endures. He’s keeping her legacy alive with the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, which “advances research to preserve and restore vision in people with diabetes.” It was a cause that also brought Levine and Moore closer in their lifetime.
Moore was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 33.
“The best way to honor her is to help create a world without vision loss from diabetes,” Levine said. “I founded [the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative] to honor her and accelerate the development of cures and new preventive strategies for vision loss from diabetic retinal disease.”
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“The best way to also remember her is to remember her kindness and grace, and model her resilience,” Levine reflected. “I have etched on her memorial stone: Her spirit a beacon, her smile eternal, she made us better.”
Back in 2023, Levine spoke to Fox News Digital about his love story.
“We all walk into relationships with baggage,” Levine reflected. “I was a young doctor. I had no expectation in my life of actually ever having a relationship with anything or anyone other than medicine. That was my calling. That’s what I was committed to.”
“When we met, I was not prepared to have a relationship with anyone,” he shared. “But as you see in her work, there was something so compelling about Mary — so genuine, so approachable. And all my usual barriers to interaction with people, my fears, were kind of reduced. They were eliminated.”
Levine recalled that after a second visit, he advised Moore, “If you need anything, just give me a call.” Moore replied, “Does acute loneliness count? Is that a good enough reason to call?”
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“I came back with something completely unexpected,” Levine chuckled at the time. “I said, ‘I can’t think of a better reason to be awakened at 3 a.m.’ But she allowed me to be natural, to be relaxed, to be uninhibited, to engage at the moment, which is something that I never really had done with a woman before. And so, our life together, our love, was just that. It was immediate. It was natural. It was an ease with which we both felt with one another that persisted through the years.”
A few days after the memorable quip, they made a dinner date. They went on to spend every weekend together. Moore gushed to friends that she was head over heels in love. After marrying, they later moved to Connecticut, where Moore embraced the role of being just another private citizen.
“… She, indeed, made people better,” said Levine. “She made me better. That’s how I want the world to remember her. She was a special lady. I miss her. I miss her deeply.”
