Grant, too, never forgot her. Even in his later years, he would speak of Loren with admiration and tenderness. To him, she represented the purity of love — unfulfilled, yet eternal. Grant’s feelings grew stronger as the production went on, and by the end of filming, he proposed marriage — not once, but twice. He told Loren he would divorce his wife (Betsey Drake) and start a new life with her. But Sophia was torn. Though she loved Grant deeply, she also loved Carlo Ponti, who had believed in her when no one else did.
He had molded her career, cared for her family, and promised her a stable future — something Loren, who had grown up in poverty, could not easily abandon. Loren later recalled, “I was deeply in love with Cary, but I also owed everything to Carlo. He had built my life with me. I couldn’t betray him.”
