“He called my mother and said, ‘I think your daughter’s trying to kill me,’” Love recalls her then-husband, Wesley Mitchell, saying in a new documentary.

Darlene Love suggests Frank Sinatra threatened her ex-husband after he ran off with their 3-month-old son

“He called my mother and said, ‘I think your daughter’s trying to kill me,’” Love recalls her then-husband, Wesley Mitchell, saying in a new documentary.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

September 14, 2026 2:46 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Darlene Love; Frank Sinatra. Credit:

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; television special Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing.Bettmann Archive

- Darlene Love had a dispute with her then-husband, Wesley Mitchell, around 1974 that led to Mitchell disappearing with their son.

- The singer “didn’t know what to do or who to call,” so she contacted Nancy Sinatra.

- Love suggested that Frank Sinatra may have had something to do with her son’s reappearance.

Darlene Love might have had some help from Ol’ Blue Eyes during a tense moment in her marriage.

The “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” singer is the subject of the new documentary *Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been*, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. In the film, Love reflects on a dispute she had around 1974 with her then-husband, Wesley Mitchell, that led to a frightening situation with the duo’s young son, Jason.

“My son Jason had to be maybe 3 months old... me and my husband were fighting — not fist fighting, but having arguments — and they were getting worse,” Love says in the documentary (per PEOPLE). “And he said, ‘Well, I’m leaving, and I’m taking my son with me.’”

Darlene Love in Toronto on Sept. 14, 2026.

Arturo Holmes/Getty

Love says that Mitchell, who died in 2014, hit the road with Jason, and she turned to a well-connected friend for help. “He took the baby, and I didn’t know where they were,” she says in the doc. “I didn’t know what to do or who to call, so I called Nancy Sinatra.”

Love doesn’t explicitly name Nancy’s father, Frank Sinatra, in her telling of the anecdote, but suggests that the “My Way” singer may have called in a favor or two to help settle the dispute.

“Without naming any names, she made a phone call, and they found where he was staying,” Love recalls. “And he was so frightened when that happened because nobody knew where he was. He called my mother and said, ‘I think your daughter’s trying to kill me. So I think I better take the baby back home.’”

** has reached out to representatives for Nancy Sinatra for comment.

Nancy Sinatra pays tribute to her dad Frank on the 28th anniversary of his death

Liam Neeson holds hands with Stella Stocker during TIFF red carpet appearance

Love thinks that Nancy’s connections settled the matter once and for all. “And then within a few hours, I had Jason back, and it’s over,” she says. “The marriage is over.”

The singer married Mitchell in 1971, three years after divorcing Leonard Peete, whom she had married in 1959. Love says she never felt confident in her marriage to Mitchell.

Art Zelin/Getty

“I say to this day, ‘Why did I marry him?,’ she says in the doc. “I’m walking down the aisle, and I’m going, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I getting married? I don’t need a man right now.’”

Love eventually married her current husband, Alton Allison, in 1984.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our****** EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

The singer was previously featured in the 2013 documentary *20 Feet From Stardom*, which centered on a multitude of musicians who worked as backup singers. Now, she’s thrilled to be the subject of her own doc 13 years later.

“This film, I think, immortalizes something forever,” she told *Variety*. “Jimmy Jones said to me, ‘You can’t have a beautiful picture without the negative.’ And if this is a life that personifies those words, that’s what it’s been, and we have a beautiful picture here.”

- Celebrities & Creators

- Entertainment Industry Roles

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Musicians”