Who was Claudia Cardinale married to and how many kids did she have? Family life explored as Italian star passes away at 87

Claudia Cardinale, 87, died on September 23, 2025. A cause of death is yet to be made official. The actress’ agent Laurent Savry was the first person to reveal the news while speaking to AFP.

Outside the entertainment industry, Claudia was a mother of two children, Claudia Squitieri and Patrick Cristaldi, and was married twice.

Her husband, Pasquale Squitieri, was a director and screenwriter who passed away around eight years ago. Furthermore, Cardinale’s first marriage was to Italian film producer Franco Cristaldi.

During her journey in the world of films and television, she was a part of more than 100 projects. This included stage plays like La Veniexiana, The Glass Menagerie, and The Odd Couple.

The New York Times stated that Claudia Cardinale’s family included three more siblings, and her father worked for the Tunisian railway as a technical engineer.

Her journey started by winning the title of the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia, following her participation in a beauty pageant.

She once recalled her career over the years as she spoke to The Guardian in 2013, and said:

“I don’t want to stop! This is fantastic, to continue to work. It’s important.”

Claudia was also honored at the Berlin Film Festival with the lifetime achievement award around 20 years ago.

She praised the directors who worked with her in multiple films, saying that they “gave me everything.”

Claudia Cardinale was a mother of two kids

The Tunis native’s relationships grabbed a lot of attention along with her success in the film industry.

As mentioned, Claudia had two children. However, she used to introduce her eldest child, Patrick, as her younger brother for a long time, as per BBC News.

Claudia Cardinale’s first husband, Franco Cristaldi, was reportedly the producer who discovered her. According to The New York Times, the former worked with Franco’s company Vides Cinematografica.

Notably, Patrick got to know that Claudia and Franco were his parents when he was around eight years old.

In 1975, the pair separated, and the Claretta star began living with filmmaker Pasquale Squitieri. The duo collaborated for a long time on different projects.

The New York Times also stated that Claudia’s previous marriage allegedly went through trouble due to her relationship with Pasquale.

Claudia and Squitieri had a daughter, also named Claudia, who has opted to keep her life away from the limelight. However, Patrick is an actor and has a film in his credits, titled Gli invisibili, as per IMDb.

More than ten years after their split, Franco died from a heart attack. He was married to actress Zeudi Araya at the time, and they had a son named Massimo.

Starting from the ‘50s, Claudia Cardinale became a popular face due to the characters she portrayed in multiple films.

She was a narrator for two projects, Alex et Marie and African Cat. Cardinale played minor roles on TV shows, such as La Storia, Flash - Der Fotoreporter, Mia, Liebe mienes Lebens, Desert of Fire, Blu elettrico, Princess Story, and more.

Cardinale had several feature films in her credits. The list included popular titles like The Magistrate, Vento Del Sud, Auguste, The Adventures of Gerard, Goodbye & Amen, The Salamander, Trail of the Pink Panther, Sous les pieds des femmes, The Silent Mountain, All Roads Lead to Rome, Rogue City, and many others.