Who is Betsy Arakawa? All About Gene Hackman’s Wife

Betsy Arakawa (Born December 1, 1961; Age: 62) is an American classical pianist and businesswoman who rose to fame as the second wife of Gene Hackman, a retired American actor and novelist, who had a 6-decade-long career and won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, one Silver Bear, and one Screen Actors Guild Award.

Betsy and Gene have been married for over 30 years, and while she has lived most of her life away from the spotlight, the celebrity wife is now a rock beside the retired veteran actor’s side in his twilight years. Read on to learn all there is to know about the celebrity wife.

Betsy Arakawa was Born in 1961 

Betsy Arakawa is 62 years old. The celebrity wife was born on December 1, 1961, in Ala Moana, Kakaako, Hawaii, United States. Her birth sign is Sagittarius, and she is an American citizen by birth. Not much is known about Betsy Arakawa’s birth family, including her parents’ identity and any siblings she might have.

Although she was born in the United States, Betsy Arakawa’s Asian heritage shines through her surname. The name Arakawa originated in Japan. It is a topographic name in reference to the Arakawa River, which drains the Kanto Plain into Tokyo Bay. The name is predominantly answered by people from eastern Japan.

The celebrity wife’s facial features are another aspect of her that suggests that her forebears were originally from the continent of Asia. Arakawa comes across as a sufficiently educated woman, but details of her formal educational background have so far been withheld from the media and the public.

Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman Met at a Gym

Betsy Arakawa became Betsy Arakawa Hackman when she exchanged marital vows with Gene Hackman in the early 1990s, but her relationship with the retired actor kicked off several years prior. They met for the first time in the early 1980s at the fitness center. He was a registered member of the gym while she was only working there on a part-time basis.

It would seem that despite her part-time employee status, Betsy Arakawa kept running into Gene on the days he came to the gym. One thing led to another, and they began a romantic affair with each other. Several sources confirm that Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman officially began dating in 1984, the same year she moved into his Santa Fe, New Mexico mansion.

Officially the couple wedded in 1991, but it would appear that the finer details of the ceremony have been overshadowed by subsequent events that have occurred throughout the marriage. One would assume, however, that given Hackman’s social status as an active actor at the time, the event would have been graced by a significant number of guests, including the former actor’s Hollywood colleagues.

Betsy Arakawa is More Than 30 Years Younger Than Her Husband

The relationship between Betsy Arakawa and her husband is a relatively unique one in the sense that there is a massive age gap between the businesswoman and her husband.

Just to provide a proper context of the age gap in question, we would love to point out that Gene Hackman is currently 94 years old, having been born on January 30, 1930, while Betsy herself is over 30 years younger at 62 years old, after being born in 1961.

Arakawa and Hackman have been married for more than 30 years, and throughout that period, nothing suggests that the age difference has played any significant part in any marital challenges they may have faced. Another feather to their cap is that they have managed to contain and settle those challenges away from the glare of the spotlight.

The only thing missing from the lengthy marital union between Arakawa and Hackman is a child between them. That void has been adequately filled by the children of the actor from his previous marriage to Faye Maltese. The retired actor’s marriage to the now-deceased Maltese (1929-2017) lasted for 30 years, from 1956 to 1986. At the time, Gene Hackman was a struggling actor, while the mother of his kids was a secretary at a bank.

The marriage produced two daughters, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Ann Hackman, and a son named Christopher Allen Hackman. Betsy’s husband struggled to have a relationship with his children when they were growing up because of the nature of his job, which required him to travel most of the time. However, since his retirement several years ago, he has managed to rebuild that relationship with them and his grandchildren.

Despite not having children of her own, one would assume that Betsy Arakawa was given the opportunity to be a mother to her husband’s children from his first marriage, even though some of them are closer to her in age than she is to her husband.

Gene Hackman’s Wife is Also an Accomplished Classical Pianist and Businesswoman

Betsy Arakawa has seen and done it all professionally. Once she was done with school, she took on several odd jobs, including working part-time at a gym where she met her husband. As the years rolled on, the celebrity wife developed her musical instrument skills and became an accomplished classical pianist.

She did that job for several years before deciding to devote more of her time to the business she started with her friend Barbara Lenihan. The business in question is a home furnishings shop based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, known as Pandora’s Inc.

Not much is known about the business, including when it was set up, but it has been quite instrumental in improving Betsy’s financial status to the point where her net worth is currently estimated to be around $2.5 million.

On the other hand, the celebrity wife’s husband spent more than 60 years as an actor and earned more than $100 million in salaries. He currently has a net worth estimated to be around $80 million. That figure is a far cry from Betsy’s relatively paltry two and a half million.

Betsy and her husband have been living in their magnificent Santa Fe, New Mexico mansion, which was featured in a 1990 edition of Architectural Digest.