Editing Alan Jay Lerner (section)

==Personal life==
For nearly twenty years, Lerner was [[Substance use disorder|addicted]] to [[amphetamines]]; during the 1960s he was a patient of [[Max Jacobson]], known as "Dr. Feelgood", who administered injections of "vitamins with enzymes" that were in fact laced with amphetamines. Lerner's addiction is believed to have been the result of Jacobson's practice.<ref>{{cite news| last=Bryk| first=William| url=http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/dr-feelgood/20251/| title=Dr. Feelgood| newspaper=[[The New York Sun]]| date=September 20, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author-link=Nicolas Rasmussen| last=Rasmussen| first=Nicolas| title=On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1mf5eEG0nRUC&q=Dexamyl%20%22purple%20heart%22&pg=PA169| publisher=New York University Press| location=New York City| date=March 1, 2008| page=169| isbn=978-0814776278}}</ref>

===Marriages and children===
Lerner married eight times: Ruth Boyd (1940–1947), singer [[Marion Bell]] (1947–1949), actress [[Nancy Olson]] (1950–1957), lawyer Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (1957–1965), editor Karen Gundersen (1966–1974), [[Sandra Payne (actress)|Sandra Payne]] (1974–1976), Nina Bushkin (1977–1981) and [[Liz Robertson]] (1981–1986 [his death]). Four of his eight wives — Olson, Payne, Bushkin, and Robertson — were actresses.<ref name=tcm/> His seventh wife, Nina Bushkin, whom he married on May 30, 1977, was the director of development at [[Mannes College of Music]] and the daughter of composer and musician [[Joey Bushkin]].<ref>"Note on People", ''The New York Times'', June 10, 1977, p. 19</ref> After their divorce in 1981, Lerner was ordered to pay her a settlement of $50,000.<ref>{{cite book| last=Lees| first=Gene| title=The musical worlds of Lerner and Loewe| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EujKPSbVOooC&q=saiger| year=2005| publisher=U of Nebraska Press| isbn=978-0803280403| page=309|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  Lerner wrote in his autobiography (as quoted by ''The New York Times''): "All I can say is that if I had no flair for marriage, I also had no flair for bachelorhood."<ref name=times>{{cite news| last=Freedman| first=Samuel| newspaper=The New York Times| title=Alan Jay Lerner, the Lyricist and Playwright, Is Dead at 67| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/15/obituaries/alan-jay-lerner-the-lyricist-and-playwright-is-dead-at-67.html| date=June 15, 1986|  page=1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  All of this lent some irony to the lyrics for his song ''[[Get Me to the Church on Time]]''. 

Lerner had four children&nbsp;— three daughters, Susan (by Boyd), Liza, and Jennifer (by Olson), and one son, screenwriter and journalist [[Michael Alan Lerner]] (by di Borgo).

[[File:Alan J Lerner Plaque London 2016.jpg|thumb|160px|right|Lerner's memorial plaque in [[St Paul's, Covent Garden|St Paul's Church]] in London]]
Lerner's multiple divorces cost him much of his wealth. Still, he was primarily responsible for his financial ups and downs and was less than truthful about his financial fecklessness.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Brown| first1=Gordon W.| last2=Myers| first2=Scott| title=Administration of wills, trusts, and estates| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaoKAAAAQBAJ&q=Lerner| date=February 22, 2012| publisher=Cengage Learning| isbn=978-1285401034| page=358}}</ref> It was claimed that his divorce settlement from Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (his fourth wife) cost him an estimated $1 million in 1965. This was untrue.<ref>{{cite news| title=Mrs. Lerner in Las Vegas Preparing to Ask Divorce| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/09/01/archives/mrs-lerner-in-las-vegas-preparing-to-ask-divorce.html| newspaper=The New York Times| date=September 1, 1965| page=28|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  Lerner's pattern of financial mismanagement continued until his death from cancer in 1986 when he reportedly owed the U.S. [[Internal Revenue Service]] over US$1 million {{USDCY|1e6|1986}} in back taxes and was unable to pay for his final medical expenses.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/20/arts/alan-jay-lerner-sued-by-us-for-1.4-million.html| title=Alan Jay Lerner Sued By U.S. for $1.4 Million| agency=[[Associated Press]]| newspaper=The New York Times| date=February 20, 1986|url-access=subscription }}</ref>