Linda Blair Has Been Through More Marriages Than Most People Realize
The actress who became famous at age twelve for a role that made people afraid of bathroom plumbing has lived a surprisingly complicated personal life. She was born Linda Ann Zbinden in 1959 and adopted by Richard and Mary Blair. Most casual fans know her as Regan from The Exorcist. Few know she has been married four times. The public rarely connects the private struggles behind those marriages. Let's talk about who she actually dated and married, in chronological order, without the usual tabloid embellishment. Her first marriage was to Jim McBride in 1977. She was 17. He was a production assistant on a film project. They divorced two years later in 1979. That relationship lasted roughly three years, entirely in her early fame period when she was still essentially a teenager navigating extraordinary circumstances with virtually no guidance. Her second marriage was to Michael Pataki from 1981 to 1982. Pataki was a character actor known for roles in Wild in the Streets and numerous television appearances. The marriage lasted about a year. Nothing dramatic about it. Just two young people who realized it wasn't working. They divorced amicably enough that neither party has made public accusations of anything worse than incompatibility.
The third marriage is the one that gets discussed the most. John Bickett. They married in 1985 and divorced in 1995. Bickett was an actor and producer, and they worked together professionally during the marriage. Linda has said in interviews that the divorce was mutual and amicable. They had a daughter together named Caroline Bickett, who was born in 1986. Caroline has largely stayed out of the public eye. Her fourth and current marriage is to Jack George, a musician and member of the band Air Supply. They wed in 2015. Jack George is significantly older than Linda. He was born in 1951, making him roughly six years her senior. As of 2026, they remain married. There have been no public announcements of separation or divorce proceedings, which is notable given how often celebrity marriages of this type tend to dissolve within five years. Beyond these four marriages, there were other documented relationships. She dated actor John Saxon briefly in the late 1970s. Saxon was a significant figure in her career and personal life for a short period. There were also rumors about a relationship with director Wes Craven during the late 1980s, though both parties never confirmed anything substantial. Linda has generally kept her dating life private outside of marriage records.
One thing that comes up repeatedly but rarely gets answered honestly: did any of these relationships affect her career trajectory? The answer is complicated. The McBride marriage overlapped with her post-Exorcist decline period. Many observers attribute her career struggles to typecasting, but the timing coincides with someone who was married at 17 and going through a messy divorce. The professional and personal stress compound in ways that are hard to separate cleanly. Her marriage to Bickett is the one where things get interesting from a career standpoint. They married during a period when she was trying to rebuild after the initial fame crash. Working with a producer husband could theoretically open doors, but it also creates a dynamic where your personal and professional boundaries blur. Linda has never publicly described any difficulty with this arrangement, which suggests she managed to keep things compartmentalized. Or she chose not to discuss it. There's also the matter of children. Linda has one daughter, Caroline, from her marriage to Bickett. She has spoken about motherhood in interviews, describing it as a grounding force after the chaos of her twenties. Caroline was raised primarily by Linda with support from her family. There are no public reports of custody disputes or complications, which is relatively unusual in celebrity divorces.
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Her relationship with her parents, Richard and Mary Blair, remained central throughout all of this. They adopted her and supported her career from the beginning. Linda credited them extensively in early interviews. That support system likely helped stabilize her during the more turbulent periods of her personal life. Not everyone in her position had that kind of foundation. Some tabloid sources have claimed she was romantically linked to various horror directors and producers beyond what I've mentioned here. Without confirmation from Linda herself or her representatives, those claims remain speculation. She has never publicly confirmed any relationships outside the four marriages and the Saxon connection. The lack of confirmation doesn't mean those rumors are false. It means they're unverified. The Jack George marriage has drawn some attention because of the age difference and the fact that George was already established in the music industry when they met. They reportedly connected through mutual friends in the entertainment industry. There's no public record of how they met initially. Linda has been relatively quiet about the early stages of that relationship, which is consistent with her general approach to privacy.
What's notable about Linda Blair's romantic history isn't any single scandal or dramatic event. It's the pattern. Four marriages spanning nearly five decades. One child. Generally amicable transitions between relationships. A career that survived despite the distractions that typically derail child actors. It's a remarkably stable record compared to many of her peers from the same era, even if the public narrative around her focuses almost exclusively on The Exorcist.
