The couple had four biological children, including son Morton Downey Jr., and adopted a fifth child, Michael.

Bennett later married actor Addison Randall, a popular romantic star and singing cowboy at the time.

On July 16, 1945, Randall died after suffering a myocardial infarction and falling from a horse during the filming of The Royal Mounted Rides Again.

[7] On August 8, 1958, five days before her 52nd birthday, Bennett died after what the media described as an unidentified "long illness" in Montreal.

[8] In her 1982 memoirs Lulu in Hollywood, longtime friend and actress Louise Brooks wrote of Bennett, "Barbara made a career of her emotions.