MLB Legend Pete Rose Was Married Twice and Once Admitted to Being Unfaithful

Known in the sports world as a Major League Baseball legend as both a player and a manager, Pete Rose passed away on Sept. 30, 2024. He was 83 years old. He is survived by his four children, though he was married twice and had two ex-wives as well. But who was Pete Rose's wife? Or, rather, his ex-wife? He was married twice, and there is some controversy surrounding how things ended with Pete's first wife in 1980.

Pete played professional baseball for more than 20 years after starting his career with the Cincinnati Reds. He went to a couple of other teams throughout his career, but returned to his hometown team in 1984 until his last game in the MLB in 1986. After that, Pete pursued a career as a team manager.

Pete married Carol J. Woliung in 1984 and they remained married until 2011, when they divorced. At the time of his death, Pete wasn't married to anyone, though Carol was his second wife (and later, his second ex-wife). Pete and Carol had two children together. Carol was both a model and a professional cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Although they were married toward the end of Pete's career as a player, Carol remained by his side as he navigated the switch to becoming a team manager. According to The U.S. Sun, Pete filed for divorce from the former model in 2011. And from there, they reportedly dealt with messy divorce proceedings.

Pete married his first wife, Karolyn Englehardt, in 1964 at the start of his MLB career. They had two children together, including Pete Rose, Jr., who followed in dad Pete's footsteps as a professional baseball player. Pete and Karolyn divorced in 1980. In 2004, Pete released his book, My Prison Without Bars, and admitted to being unfaithful to his first wife, per the New York Post.

In his book, Pete admitted to starting a relationship with his eventual second wife Carol while he was still married to first wife Karolyn.

"Most folks know about my reputation with the ladies," Rose wrote. "Temptations that were just too plentiful and too hard to resist."

Although Pete was a self-described ladies' man, he was not married at the time of his death in 2024. He was, however, in a long-term relationship with model Kiana Kim, who he began dating in 2011. Like Pete's second wife, Kiana is a model. They were in a short-lived reality series called Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs. in 2013.

There are some reports that Pete and Kim were engaged. And it isn't lost on Pete's fans that he filed for divorce from his second wife the same year they started dating.

Pete is survived by Kiana and his four children.