The spotlight
Even though Desi was starring night after night on primetime TV, he always knew who the boss was: his wife. After all, the show was called I Love Lucy, so he where his limits were in terms of how much he could ask and who the star was.
Desi knew that he couldn’t complain about not having enough air time because, well, his wife was the main character. But that wasn’t a problem for him or his ego. Since his wife was making big bucks, he couldn’t be happier. As a married couple, he saw her success as his success, too.