After her death, Ike Jones, the first Black person to graduate from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television, claimed that he had been secretly married to Stevens since 1961. Some doubted this due to the lack of a marriage license, the maintaining of separate homes and the filing of tax documents as single people. However, at the time Stevens' estate was being settled, the actress's brother, Carl O. Stensland, confirmed in court that his sister had hidden her marriage to Jones "out of fear for her career". Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner A. Edward Nichols ruled in Ike Jones's favor and made him administrator of her estate. A photo exists of the two attending a banquet together in 1968. A former website dedicated to Stevens also stated that the marriage to Jones took place in Tijuana, Mexico.