Diane Ladd had a tight-knit bond with her family before her death in November 2025.
The Oscar-Nominated actress made history with ex-husband Bruce Dern and daughter Laura Dern in 2010, when the family became the first to be presented with adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“I ask the universe that these three stars right here — when I’m dead and gone or if I’m still alive — that whoever comes and looks at it or stands on it, may the energy of the three of our lives permeate into their foundation and help each and every one fulfill their destiny with joy and love, as I wish for you,” Ladd said during her acceptance speech, per People.
News broke of Ladd’s death at age 89 in November 2025. A cause of death was not immediately shared.
“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, California,” Laura wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Scroll down to learn more about Ladd’s family:
Bruce Dern
Ladd was married to Bruce from 1960 to 1969. The couple were parents to late daughter Diane and their surviving daughter, Laura.
“If you lose a child, it’s very hard to cope,” Ladd shared in the book Honey, Baby, Mine, while discussing their divorce. “We were struggling actors. We could hardly make it. We had to stay in the same house where she died because we couldn’t afford to leave. His family could have helped us, but they didn’t.”
Years later, Bruce mourned Ladd’s death in a statement shared with Us Weekly. “She lived a good life,” Bruce said in November 2025. “She saw everything the way it was. She was a great teammate to her fellow actors. She was funny, clever, gracious. But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.”
Diane Dern
Ladd and Bruce became parents when they welcomed daughter Diane, who died at 18 months after a drowning accident in 1962.
“She fell into the pool. She hit her head and knocked herself out. And it all happened instantly. And she died, and you will never get over that,” Ladd told CBS News in 2023.
Laura Dern
After Diane’s death, Ladd and Bruce welcomed daughter Laura — who followed in her mother’s footsteps. The mother-daughter duo shared a tight bond through the years, including when Ladd was given six months to live in 2019 following a health scare with her lungs. While taking walks with Ladd to help her recovery, Laura began recording those conversations for her own kids to hear. (Laura shares children Ellery and Jaya with ex-husband Ben Harper.)
“I was shocked at how little I’d asked her,” Laura said. “The hard stuff, because I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want to bring it up and hurt her.’ But even the simple stuff. I’ve been raised by an actor, I’ve worked alongside my mother, and yet I’d never asked, ‘Why did you want to become an actress? … What was the first movie that ever inspired you? What’s your favorite color?’”
Ladd and Laura released their book, Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding), in 2023.
William A. Shea Jr.
Ladd moved on with Shea Jr. after her split from Bruce. The actress was married to Shear Jr. from 1969 to 1976.
Robert Charles Hunter
Ladd tied the knot with the former CEO of PepsiCo Food Systems in 1999. The pair cofounded Exxcell Entertainment that same year, collaborating seven years later on Inland Empire. The 2006 movie also featured Laura.
Hunter’s family shared in August 2025 that Hunter died in Fort Worth, Texas, while visiting his children. He was 77 and survived by Ladd, Laura and his children Brandon, Amy and Emily.
While paying tribute to Hunter, his family explained that the 2008 novel Curious Journey: Origins and 2011’s Curious Journey: Energy “tapped into his intellect and curiosity about the world.”
“Robert always loved Texas,” the statement read to The Hollywood Reporter. “The wide skies, the bold spirit and the warmth of Fort Worth were part of his soul. Returning home brought him peace and joy — a feeling he often described as ‘like coming back to the rhythm of my heart.’”
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