Fact-Check: Did Nat King Cole Leave His First Wife for Maria Hawkins?

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Between 1940 and 1945, the King Cole Trio transformed from an inventive West Coast cocktail-lounge group into a commercial powerhouse. Hits like "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You" generated national tours, radio broadcasts, and lucrative recording sessions. Cole was on the road for forty to forty-eight weeks a year. Robinson remained behind in Los Angeles, running the home they had purchased but living an increasingly isolated existence.

The distance proved ruinous. While Robinson expected Cole's success to bring domestic stability, Cole was caught in the gears of mainstream crossover stardom. Industry managers, booking agents, and record executives demanded constant travel. Robinson had also hoped to start a family, but the couple remained childless, an issue that became a quiet source of recurring sorrow for both.

By the mid-1940s, the marriage was hollowed out. Friends and bandmates noted that Cole’s calls home grew perfunctory. The financial strain was gone, but the shared purpose that had defined their penniless months in 1937 had evaporated.