Julia Howe’s daughter, Desiree Anzalone, never had the chance to meet her great-grandmother — and neither did her mother. As Howe wrote on her Facebook page in 2018 on the anniversary of Lucille Ball’s death, “I was very pregnant with my daughter Desido and I remember just falling to my knees knowing I’d never get the chance to ever met my G-ma in this lifetime.” However, Howe decided to keep Ball’s legacy alive and name her daughter after her grandmother, giving her child Ball’s middle name.
Growing up, Anzalone wasn’t very close to her mom, which had to do, in part, with the fact that her mother struggled with a drug addiction. “My grandparents on my dad’s side raised me and had full custody of me so I never knew my mom until later in life,” she wrote on her Instagram page in 2017. “I was only 3 when my mother decided it best to give me up but I’m resilient.” One example of her resilience? Anzalone fought stage four breast cancer and beat it (via Model Citizen Magazine).
Nowadays, Ball’s great-granddaughter works as a photographer in Connecticut. Her main Instagram page is filled with photos that show she bares a striking resemblance to the I Love Lucy star, but she doesn’t think so. “I have acknowledged my entire life I do not resemble my great-grandma, but rather have more of the Arnaz genes,” she wrote on Instagram in April 2019. Regardless, she still has old Hollywood royalty in her blood.
Written by: Nicki