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ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY DIVORCING? by K.V. Burroughs Movieland and TV Time September 1972

She admitted she loved quiet times at home with her boys. Also, she and Bill bicycled and played tennis and shared real togetherness. What happened?

Bill Asher directed most of the "Bewitched" series in which his wife starred. They seemed very happy both at home and working together.

On the set for years Liz glowed and loved every minute of her work. She worked and had her babies and said it wasn't too hard and very fulfilling.

The end of "Bewitched" seems to have also heralded the end of the marriage of its star and her husband--Liz Montgomery and Bill Asher!

A few months ago rumors started filtrating through that there was trouble in the Liz Montgomery-Bill Asher marriage. It came as a complete surprise and we hastened to try to check it out.      The best way was to contact Liz Montgomery and ask her point blank about the whispers. A friend did it for us. Elizabeth told her that there was absolutely no truth to the story. "Bill and I are very happy and are off for the weekend with the children." She was totaly convincing and we were glad to hear it and that was that!      One of the reasons we were so glad to hear all was well was because we met this wonderful couple a few years back and they really seemed so in love and so right for each other to us.      Actually I was meeting Bill Asher for lunch and it was all very splendid. Ruth Pologe of American-International Pictures picked me up in a chauffeured limousine and we stopped at the hotel the Ashers were staying at to pick him up. We waited out front for about ten minutes and Bill came rushing out finally with Liz in tow. He apologized and Liz smiled charmingly and said it was all her fault. We weren't expecting to see her. She was in a black tailored outfit and looked gorgeous to me. After the introductions--she had charged right into the car--she said, "Bill said you wouldn't mind taking me to the hairdresser. i look a mess so I decided to go because we're going up to my father's house for the weekend and I won't get a chance later. They can take me now."      Bill was beaming at Liz and she gave him tender little wifely looks that made it plain he was hers. And suddenly I realized that Mrs. Asher had decided to come along and see where Bill was going to lunch and who with. It was all very casual and naturally, since we had a car it was easy for us to do...but somehow this competent self-assured, charming and lovley lady looked quite capable of grabbing herself a cab to go uptown without us.      I thought it was a rather sweet touch that she had come along to be introduced and it was fun meeting her though the ride was very short and we dropped her off somewhere on Madison Avenue. As a matter of fact, I was a little disappointed because for a minute I thought she had decided to join us. However, she left fully confident that her husband was safe with me--though the thought depresses me.      Bill Asher is just great. A charming man, full of enthusiasm and joy of living...a wonderful talker and in person a hundred times more attractive than he photographs. He was oozing health and sporting a tan. He is one of those men who has lost hair prematurely and you don't even notice it when he starts talking to you.      Mostly we talked about the films he was directing for American-International at the time and some about "Bewitched." The main impression I got was that he and Liz worked well together and had a happy film set. She also liked to visit him when he directed a film and I collected pictures of her standing on the sidelines watching the work.      I gathered that they loved weekends at home just relaxing. Liz gardens and of course takes care of her boys. She and Bill liked to bicycle together and play tennis. I think I heard that Liz cooked for them on weekends and liked it.      That was back when they only had one baby...a brand new boy they had brought on to meet Liz's father, Robert Montgomery, his grandfather.      We all know Liz and Bill went on working on "Bewitched" for many more years. It was a very successful show but has been cancelled after last season.      Now, once again, we read a reliable report in the papers that Liz Montgomery and Bill Asher will be divorcing. It was also in a gossip column in a trade paper. This time we haven't been able to reach them to deny or confirm it. Still, a report like this usually does not make its way into the newpapaers without having some basis in fact. The item went further and indicated that Elizabeth may be interested in another director who through the years has directed some of the "Bewitched" segments.      If the Asher's marriage is in trouble and coming to an end it will not be because Liz and Bill haven't tried to keep it from happening. We know they had too much going for them to give up easily, plus they have their wonderful children to consider. Both Liz and Bill were married before. She was once married to Gig Young. He always seemed to me to be a man very much like her father, Robert Montgomery. He was the tall, dark handsome type, a master of comedy, charming and man of the worldish. Their marriage ended and they had no children to suffer the consequences, Bill's earlier marriage evidently failed and Liz and Bill frequently had his son from the marriage with them, playing tennis and sharing their lives.      If I were to repeat rumors of reasons the Ashers may have decided to call it a day, it would be talking aboutt something I simply know nothing about and refuse to pass along. It really isn't important and is between Liz and Bill. It is sad and obviously must be painful to both of them. Divorces are very painful and create a sense of failure in both parties. There are always the questions..."Where did we go wrong?", "We were so much in love, how could it be gone?" "Was it my fault?" Sometimes there just are no good answers to any of these questions, but they still torture the two who are going through the death of their love. It is even worse if love is still strong in one of the parites and not in the other.      At any rate, no divorce comes about overnight. It takes years of marriage erosion to cause two wonderful people like the Ashers to decide to call it a day. It takes a lot of intolerable living to be convinced that the children would be better off with two separate parents than one unhappy pair trying to hide their marital trouble from the eyes of their little children.      If it is true that they have decided to divorce, it is a great tragedy for them and we are sorry to hear it. Liz would not be the first wife to deny trouble in her marriage right up to the last minute. There have been cases in Hollywood where stars denied splittling even on the day they filed for divorce.      So far as we know, Elizabeth is resting after a long run in a very popular TV series. The Ashers should have no money problems because the series has made them wealthy. It is a time for resting and thinking and reviewing their lives. Perhaps in the more relaxed atmosphere they will decide to go on together. We'll all know soon enough. Meantime keep your fingers crossed--I am.