Who Is Suzanne Somers' First Husband, Bruce Somers?

Suzanne Somers found lasting love with her husband, Alan Hamel. The two famously tied the knot in 1977, a decade after meeting on the syndicated game show "The Anniversary Game," which Hamel hosted. After marrying Alan in 1977, Suzanne became a stepmother to his kids from his previous marriage to Marilyn Hamel — Stephen and Leslie. Suzanne — who died on October 15, 2023, at age 77, following a private battle with breast cancer — shared the secret to their happy marriage in a previous interview with People. "We give each other a lot of attention. We date at least three times a week. We dance when we are alone," she said. "We are respectful of one another. We both value our good health... I never get tired of him." Aside from being husband and wife, Suzanne said she and Hamel were each other's best friends and business partners. "We are each other's everything."

Before Hamel, Suzanne was wed to Bruce Somers Sr. from 1965 to 1968. The "Three's Company" star was only 19 years old when she tied the knot with her first husband shortly after getting pregnant with their son, Bruce Jr. While married to Bruce, Suzanne began her affair with Hamel which later resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and her getting a secret abortion. Reflecting on her failed first marriage, Suzanne told the Tampa Bay Times in 1992, "Getting pregnant and getting a divorce a year later only contributed to my low self-esteem and my need for constant crises. Back then I was lying, manipulating, hiding... I blamed myself for everything."

Opening up about the divorce in her 1998 memoir, "After The Fall," Suzanne Somers admitted that she was unhappy in her marriage to Bruce Somers. "I was miserable and blamed him for our predicament," she wrote. "I felt that for both of us, youth had been cut short and our individual dreams would never be realized." She added that their marriage was doomed even from the start. "What had been fun as girlfriend and boyfriend was now a new life of responsibility we were not ready to assume," Suzanne said. "We had no money, so paying the rent and putting food on the table kept us both in a constant state of panic, hardly conducive to starting a life together." In addition to financial problems, Suzanne said she and her ex-husband also lacked a deep, emotional connection. "We hardly knew each other. Our dating conversations had been about parties, sports, and the latest jokes," she wrote in her book, adding, "There had been no serious digging into our souls."

Although her ex was a nice guy "with an easy laugh" who did well in school and dreamt of becoming a lawyer, Suzanne said she'd made the wrong decision in marrying Bruce. "He was two years older than me, but his twenty years were not sufficient to prepare him for fatherhood and marriage," she said. Ultimately, the "Step By Step" star said she had no regrets about walking away from the marriage. "The union had been so wrong that we both felt it was better to get out now rather than later," she said. 

While Bruce seems to have mastered the art of staying under the radar over the years, a photo posted on Instagram by his son, Bruce Somers Jr, suggests the two maintain a close relationship.