Meet James Westley Welch, Raquel Welch’s First Husband and Love

James Westley Welch was the man against whom Raquel Welch judged all other partners. The “Legally Blonde” actress had to compete with her first’s husband’s call to the ocean.

The handsome dark-haired sailor, James Westley Welch, simply known as Jim, long had a hold on his high school sweetheart, Raquel Welch, when they first laid eyes on each other at 15.

The breakout star of “One Million Years B.C.” was married and divorced four times. She passed away after a short illness on the morning of Wednesday, February 15, 2023.

A publicity portrait of Raquel Welch for the movie “One Million Years B.C.” in 1966. | Source: Getty Images

James Westley Welch Was Raquel’s ‘Prince Charming’ She Couldn’t Resist

Seeing Elvis Presley live in concert was a milestone for fourteen-year-old Raquel until she met a green-eyed boy in her American government class at La Jolla High School a year later. In her memoir, “Beyond the Cleavage,” the starlet recounted:

“From the first minute I saw him, I secretly knew that I was destined to have his babies. In my emotionally charged, romantic young mind, I fixated on Jim as ‘my one and only.’ He seemed to feel a magnetic pull toward me as well.”

As the stepson of Fed Mart Corporation’s founder, James, born January 29, 1937, was one of the few boys in school with a car. The actress “was in heaven” when they drove to school together in the mornings. By idealizing him as her “Prince Charming,” she did not realize that she had very little in common with the quiet boy.

Richard Briers and Raquel Welch in “Fathom” in 1967. | Source: Getty Images

However, the cheerleader and football player did inhabit the same spaces and had an on-again-off-again romance. After games, they’d pile into the car for burgers and shakes and a make-out session to their song, “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke. Or the young couple would go to dances. For all the silences, the teens connected on the dance floor.

Raquel was well aware that kids were sensitive to the signs of an unhappy marriage.

James took his ambiance towards academics a step further in his senior year by dropping out of school and “went off on a tuna clipper to Peru.” Honors student Raquel was heartbroken, but her father declared, “Good riddance!”

Portrait of American actress Raquel Welch while filming “Fathom” in Spain in the 1960s. | Source: Getty Images

James Westley Welch and Raquel Welch’s Marriage Didn’t Last Long

The high school sweethearts kept in touch as Raquel went to San Diego State College on a scholarship to study theater arts. Between his letters from abroad, his mother, Tahnee Land, kept her posted and was “always very sweet” to her.

When her beau returned from his travels after a few months looking tanned and buff, she dropped out of college to get hitched in Las Vegas in 1959. The pair had Land’s blessing. Raquel’s mom was not happy, but her father was “furious.”

Months after eloping, the news weather girl fell pregnant with their son Damon. Between her modeling and TV gigs, she cooked and kept the small apartment in Pacific Beach immaculate. James struggled to handle her rise in profile and career.

Raquel Welch attends the 16th Costume Designers Guild Awards with presenting sponsor Lacoste at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 22, 2014, in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Getty Images

The couple broke up but got together long enough to have a daughter named after his mom, Tahnee, on December 26, 1961. A child of divorce herself, Raquel was well aware that kids were sensitive to the signs of an unhappy marriage. She took their two children and headed to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She explained:

“After three and a half years, I the only way to leave my husband was to get out of town. I had to vanish. And I did.”

The couple was granted a divorce in 1964. In 1973, now the president of a multi-dollar conglomerate, James admitted that he was “a b**tard to Raquel a lot of the time.” But he insisted their union was also beautiful and “idyllic at times”; they were just “kids in love.”

Actress Raquel Welch and son Damon Welch arrive to the 46th Academy Awards, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, in Los Angeles, California, on April 2, 1974. | Source: Getty Images

After Their Separation, James Westley Welch and Raquel Welch Didn’t See Each Other for 15 Years

At 82, James Westley Welch died on November 23, 2019, in Bryan, Texas. He was cremated. Raquel always held her first husband dear, as she wrote in her 2010 memoir:

“Jim would be my first true love with all the implies. He’d be unforgettable, always present love, against whom all others would be judged.”

Raquel Welch, with her husband, Patrick Curtis, in London, on January 8, 1971. | Source: Getty Images

Though “The Three Musketeers” actress’ second husband, producer Patrick Curtis, legally adopted her two kids, James tried to keep tabs on his progeny. In 1977, he contacted the mother of his children to arrange their first meeting in fifteen years since their separation.

Raquel was happy to see that her first love was prospering, and he was also proud of her successes. The long overdue conversation revolved around the children and their futures. The exes hardly brought up the past.

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