Tova

[Clothescloth]

M)

She's actually speaking from experience. I didn't realise that she was married before Ernie to a textile entrepreneur called Louis Littledon who she worked for as his secretary. They had an affair while he was married to someone else and she had his baby, a son, which she gave up for adoption. He subsequently left his wife and married Tove (the name on her birth certificate) and financed her first business, a cosmetics shop called Tove's Touch. They divorced after seven years.

I knew that she had a son, and wondered why he was never mentioned. Didn’t realise that he’d been given up for adoption . I suppose it would have been very shameful to have an illegitimate child back in the day.

 

[Dame Fondacox]

M)

I knew that she had a son, and wondered why he was never mentioned. Didn’t realise that he’d been given up for adoption . I suppose it would have been very shameful to have an illegitimate child back in the day.

It was, and it's heartbreaking to watch those programmes that cover stories of adoption from that time. It was shameful too. My mum once told me that her school friend, who came from a family considered to be quite posh, fell pregnant to a married man (her boss) when she'd just turned 16. So that the neighbours wouldn't find out, her mother packed her off to say with her childless aunt and uncle, who were to adopt the baby once it was born. My mum accompanied her to one of her antenatal appointment, and the midwives would come into the waiting room when it was time for the next appointment, and call the married women by their full name i.e. Mrs Smith, and the unmarried ones by their full name - Joan Smith. It was literally a walk of shame to and from the consultation room, with everyone looking disapprovingly and whispering remarks to the person sitting next to them. That was only in the late 60s so not that long ago all things considered.

 

[Dame Fondacox]

The classic having an affair with the secretary. I wonder if her son ever tried to find her?

One of the reports on Ernie's death refers to his stepson, David Johnson but that could be from one of his previous marriages.

 

[llloyd]

One of the reports on Ernie's death refers to his stepson, David Johnson but that could be from one of his previous marriages.

looks like you are correct.​

STATISTICS​

• Source of Wealth:​

  Cosmetics

• Age:​

  78

• Birth Place:​

  Oslo, Norway

• Marital Status:​

  Divorced (Ernest Borgnine)

• Full Name:​

  Tova Traesnaes Borgnine

• Nationality:​

  Norwegian and American

• Date of Birth:​

  November 17, 1941

• Ethnicity:​

  Norwegian

• Occupation:​

  Cosmetics Company Owner

• Children:​

  1 (David Johnson)

 

[donna255]

So it looks like she and her son reunited.

 

[llloyd]

So it looks like she and her son reunited.

It does, I found part of an article that said so, but it was an American newspaper & I could only read part of it without subscribing.

 

[AndiK]

I thought she was still with Ernest when he died?

 

[Vienna]

M)

I knew that she had a son, and wondered why he was never mentioned. Didn’t realise that he’d been given up for adoption . I suppose it would have been very shameful to have an illegitimate child back in the day.

I remember many years ago when I was just a teen and still lived with parents we heard such a racket from the house next door. My parents lived in a terraced house and we could hear shouting, really heart rendering crying and a woman`s voice hysterically saying "you should have told me, you should have told me ". It went on for ages and ages and then went quiet.
It seems the lady who lived next door to my parents had a much younger sister who visited almost daily. The neighbour was married and had 3 grown sons and her sister wasn`t actually her sister but her daughter.
The neighbour had gotten pregnant at 15 so it seems and the pregnancy was hidden from all but her parents and when the baby was born she was brought up as her sister.
The day we heard all the crying and shouting was the day her "sister" had actually found out the truth and understandably it all kicked off. Such things happened back then, Mrs S would have been pregnant during the 1930`s as a 15 year old girl and the truth finally came out in the 1960`s so it was a well hidden secret for many years.

 

[Clothescloth]

I thought she was still with Ernest when he died?

I think ‘divorced’ refers to her first marriage. Ernest Borgnine refers to her present marital status. I do hope she was reunited with her son, and it ended happily

 

[Brissles]

SHE'S ONLY 78 !!

Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but if that's true well I'm 6 years younger and would pass for her daughter ! (I was going to say granddaughter, but I didn't want to do a Jane Seymour )

 

[Brissles]

Interewting excerpt from an interview in the New York Times with Tova's comments about sell her company to QVC...

Indeed, like stepfamilies trying to blend together, the transition from single household to Brady Bunch is often harder than most entrepreneurs anticipate. Either the former owners have trouble giving up control, or they find the new office culture radically different from what they were used to, or they simply cannot bear to see what the new owners are doing to their creations. It can be wrenching even in the best of circumstances.

“It’s like giving up a child,” said Tova Borgnine, the founder and chief executive of the Tova Corporation, a cosmetics and fragrance company now owned by the televised home shopping company QVC. In March 1977, Ms. Borgnine, who is married to the actor Ernest Borgnine, started a mail-order company in Los Angeles selling a perfume called Tova Signature.

By 1987, she had 65 skincare products and 80 employees. In 1990, she began selling her wares on QVC, and 12 years later QVC bought the Tova brand for a seven-figure sum. Tova Signature is QVC’s top-selling perfume.

It was, she said, an accomplishment she was proud of, but still an adjustment. “In a massive corporate structure you have bureaucracy that you must be able to get through,” said Ms. Borgnine, who divides her time between Beverly Hills and Malvern, Pa., near QVC’s headquarters. “All of the products are the same as when I created my company; I’m in on every strategy meeting, but now there’s a collective voice. That’s a luxury, but you’ve also got to be able to let go.”

So since 2002 we've been scammed into believing it was her business ! Ok, someone should put this on Facebook and see what QVC and the rest of her fans say about it, because I guarantee the majority have no idea of this.

 

[llloyd]

SHE'S ONLY 78 !!

Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but if that's true well I'm 6 years younger and would pass for her daughter ! (I was going to say granddaughter, but I didn't want to do a Jane Seymour )

79 last month

 

[Clothescloth]

SHE'S ONLY 78 !!

Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but if that's true well I'm 6 years younger and would pass for her daughter ! (I was going to say granddaughter, but I didn't want to do a Jane Seymour )

What gets me though, is that Tova has been on QVC for what must be at least 20 years or so, and what I can remember of her is that she always looked quite ‘old fashioned’, so she must have only been in her 50’s when we first met her! She always seemed a lot older.

 

[donna255]

So since 2002 we've been scammed into believing it was her business ! Ok, someone should put this on Facebook and see what QVC and the rest of her fans say about it, because I guarantee the majority have no idea of this.

It is openly talked about on the US QVC forum for years. Not sure if many know in the UK. I cannot post on QVC Facebook.

 

[donna255]

People have always thought she was older that what she says. I remember way back she talked about having cancer and all her hair fell out and it was her own brand hair care that helped it grow back.

 

[missbabs]

I know someone who liked the fragrance but had to send it back because her neighbour's dog went crazy when she passed by and ran after her, trying to mount her leg...

Lol

 

[Loveinamist]

. Tova Signature is QVC’s top-selling perfume.

Why sabotage a winning formula by reformulating?

 

[Dame Fondacox]

It is nice to know she reunited with her son. I agree she's always looked older than she is - I'd have put her in her early 70s, back when I first started watching Q around 1999-2000. I'd love to have seen her when she was peddling her "How To Stay Happily Married Forever" book in 1997.

I wonder if they'll do something special to mark her 80th, next year.

 

[Brissles]

Doubt it. She probably wont want to publicise how old she is.

 

[candycane]

79 last month

Tova 79??? Really? Wow. My mum's 83 and looks years younger than Tova. Mum doesn't do all the make up and candy cane hair though, she's just a normal looking older lady. I would have thought Tova was older than 79 but hey, we are what we are.

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