He has been married five times. In 1967, he married his third wife, Gabriele; they had two children together and he also adopted her son from a previous marriage, Eugene. Gabriele was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1983 and died in 1985. A year later, Eugene died after hitting his head while swimming in the family estate's swimming pool. In 2004 his son David Jr. died in an auto accident on the Santa Monica Freeway. His remaining son Justin serves as CEO and executive chairman of NovaRx and is senior vice President of Investments for Castle & Cooke. Previously, he was a Director at the Dole Food Company, as well as their audit and Finance committee until his retirement on May 17, 2013. In 2011, Forbes ranked David Sr. as the 190th-richest person in the "Forbes 400" list and 613th in the "World's Billionaires" list, with a net worth of US$2.4 billion as of March 2013.