Mary Marquardt: The Verified Story of Harrison Ford’s First Wife

Type “Mary Marquardt” into Google and you’ll get a dozen articles that all say roughly the same six things, and several of them can’t even agree on her birth year. That’s the problem with a lot of what’s out there on her – it’s been copy-pasted and reworded so many times that nobody seems to be checking it against anything real anymore.

So here’s an attempt to do this differently: what’s actually confirmed about Mary Marquardt, what’s genuinely interesting about her life beyond the “Harrison Ford’s first wife” headline, and where the internet has simply been repeating itself into error.

Quick Facts

Known for	Chef, illustrator; first wife of actor Harrison Ford
Married	June 18, 1964
Divorced	1979
Children	Two sons — Benjamin (b. 1966) and Willard (b. 1969)
Career	Professional chef and illustrator
Current status	Lives privately in the United States

Who Is Mary Marquardt?

Mary Marquardt was Harrison Ford’s college girlfriend, then his wife for fifteen years, during the exact stretch of time he went from an unknown actor working odd jobs to Han Solo. That timing is why she’s still searched today – she was there for the part of his life nobody got to see on screen.

But she wasn’t just a supporting character in someone else’s story. She built her own career as a chef, and that career quietly shaped the next generation of her family: her son Ben Ford has spent decades as a working chef and restaurateur, and by his own account, some of what he learned in a kitchen came directly from her.

One quick housekeeping note before we go further: you’ll see her age listed inconsistently across the web – some sites put her birth year at 1945, others shift it by a few years. We’re not going to pretend to resolve that here with false precision; where a figure isn’t reliably confirmed, we’ll say so instead of stating it as fact.

Early Life and Meeting Harrison Ford at Ripon College

Marquardt and Ford met as students at Ripon College, a small liberal arts school in Wisconsin, in the early 1960s. This was years before “Harrison Ford” meant anything to anyone – he was a philosophy student with an interest in acting, not yet the guy who’d be offered a seven-picture deal.

That detail matters more than it might seem. It means Marquardt didn’t marry a movie star; she married a broke college kid with an uncertain plan, and she was around for every version of him before fame changed the equation. A lot of “first wife” stories get flattened into “she was married to someone famous.” Hers is really a story about the years before anyone knew if he’d make it at all.

Marriage to Harrison Ford (1964–1979)

They married on June 18, 1964, not long after finishing school. The early years of the marriage lined up with Ford’s least glamorous period as an actor – he took carpentry work to pay the bills while auditioning, and by several accounts, it was Marquardt who kept the household stable while that gamble played out.

It paid off, eventually and dramatically. Ford’s career caught fire with Star Wars in 1977, and two years later, the marriage ended. Fifteen years is a long run for any couple, and it’s worth noting what a lot of coverage glosses over: the divorce happened right as Ford’s life was becoming unrecognizable from the one Marquardt had signed up for. Sudden fame doesn’t just change the famous person – it changes the shape of every relationship around them.

You’ll see plenty of articles state, flatly, exactly who Ford was allegedly involved with around the time of the divorce. We’re going to hold off on presenting that as settled fact, because different outlets name different people, and none of it traces back to a confirmed source. If you’re looking for that detail specifically, be skeptical of any article that states it with total confidence – that confidence isn’t backed by much.

Her Career as a Chef and Illustrator

This is the part most articles skip past with a vague line like “she worked at several restaurants.” It’s worth slowing down on, because it’s actually the most concrete, well-documented part of her adult life.

After the divorce, Marquardt kept working in professional kitchens rather than stepping out of the workforce. One specific, traceable connection: she worked at the Filling Station in Culver City, a restaurant tied to Ford’s own business interests – an interesting detail, given the circumstances, that the two apparently maintained enough of a working relationship for that to happen at all. She’s also been connected to Café FX, where she and her son Ben worked together at points in his early career.

Her illustration work ran alongside the cooking – she trained and worked in that field too, though far less has been publicly documented about it than her culinary career.

The clearest evidence of her influence, though, is Ben Ford. He didn’t just casually pick up cooking – he became a professional chef and restaurateur, opened multiple restaurants including Ford’s Filling Station, and wrote a cookbook, Taming the Feast. He’s talked about trying, for years, to nail his mother’s roast chicken recipe and never quite getting it right. That’s not filler trivia – it’s a genuinely good detail, because it tells you her cooking wasn’t just a job; it was distinctive enough that her own professionally trained son couldn’t fully reproduce it.

Sons Ben Ford and Willard Ford

Marquardt and Ford had two sons: Benjamin, born September 22, 1966, and Willard, born May 14, 1969.

Ben followed his mother into food. He’s a known figure in the Los Angeles restaurant scene, runs Ford’s Filling Station (including a location at LAX), and has built a public profile around cooking that traces directly back to watching her work.

Willard took a different route, building a career connected to fitness and clothing. You’ll find his business referred to by different names across various articles – another spot where the coverage isn’t consistent, so we’re not going to guess at specifics that keep changing depending on which site you read.

Both sons have families of their own now, and reporting suggests Marquardt stays close with her grandchildren – though, again, you’ll find their names listed differently from one article to the next, which is a good sign that a lot of this content is being generated rather than reported.

Life After Divorce and Health

Marquardt didn’t disappear from public life so much as she simply chose not to occupy it. No memoir, no tell-all interview, no talk-show circuit. She kept working as a chef for years after the divorce and stayed close to her sons while doing it.

At some point, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – the exact timeline varies depending on the source, with some pointing to the late 1980s and others to the early 2000s, so treat any article that states a precise year with confidence. What is consistent across reporting is that the condition eventually affected her ability to keep working in professional kitchens, and that her son Ben has spoken publicly about supporting her through it, including involvement with MS-related advocacy work.

She’s also been described, in an interview her son gave, as having had a good relationship with a partner named Bob Becker after the divorce – a TV director Ben once credited warmly, saying simply, “I had a wonderful stepfather in Bob Becker.” It’s a small detail, but it’s one of the few moments where the story comes from an actual named, quoted source rather than an unattributed “reports say.”

Today, by all accounts, she lives a quiet, private life in the United States, out of the spotlight by choice rather than circumstance.

Common Myths and Unverified Claims About Mary Marquardt

Here’s a direct rundown of where the internet’s coverage of Marquardt contradicts itself – useful if you’ve read conflicting things elsewhere and aren’t sure what to trust.

• Her exact birth year. Sources disagree, landing anywhere in the mid-1940s. Treat any article stating an exact age with unearned confidence.
• The MS diagnosis timeline. Reported as anywhere from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, depending on the source – this hasn’t been pinned down consistently.
• Who Ford was allegedly involved with around the divorce. Different articles name different people with no clear sourcing behind either claim. This is speculation, not established fact.
• Grandchildren’s names. Listed differently across multiple “biography” sites – a strong indicator that some of this content was generated rather than researched.
• Willard’s business specifics. Named inconsistently from article to article, which suggests nobody’s actually verified it firsthand.

None of this means the broader shape of her story is in doubt – the marriage, the sons, the chef career, all of that is well-established. It’s the granular details that keep getting mangled in the retelling.

FAQ

Who is Mary Marquardt?

She’s a professional chef and illustrator best known as Harrison Ford’s first wife, married to him from 1964 to 1979.

How long were Mary Marquardt and Harrison Ford married?

Fifteen years – they wed on June 18, 1964, and divorced in 1979.

Does Mary Marquardt have children?

Yes, two sons: Benjamin Ford, born in 1966, and Willard Ford, born in 1969.

Is Mary Marquardt still alive?

Yes, based on available reporting, she is alive and living privately.

What does Mary Marquardt do now?

She’s retired from professional cooking and largely stays out of public life, though her son Ben has spoken about her occasionally in interviews.