Dame Maggie Smith death: All about her marriages to Beverley Cross and Robert Stephens

As the world remembers the respect and love we shared for the late Dame Maggie Smith, we also remember those closest to her.

The actress was married twice in a love story full of twists and turns, but in the end she found her way to where she was meant to be.

When she was 18 years old in 1952, she met playwright Beverley Cross at Oxford University, according to the New York Times.

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Despite him already being married to classmate Elizabeth Clunies-Ross, he was besotted with the young Smith, even casting her in his play Strip the Willow in 1960.

They eventually crafted a relationship, with Cross eventually convinced that Smith was the one and making arrangements to divorce his wife and propose to Smith.

But he was too late. Though she didn’t initially want to, Smith had gone to join the National Theater at the Old Vic on Cross’ advice, which is where she ended up meeting her first husband, actor Robert Stephens.

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She told The Guardian in 2004 that meeting Stephens “… was entirely Bev’s fault. Because he made me go to the National Theatre when I had already said no.”

Smith and Stephens wed in 1967, welcoming two songs over the course of their marriage, Chris Larkins in 1967 and Toby Stephens in 1969.

The pair also co-starred in two films, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), for which Smith won her first Academy Award, and Travels With My Aunt (1972).

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However their marriage was affected by Stephens reportedly attempting suicide while performing in the play The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1970.

She spoke about the incident to The Guardian in 2004, telling them, “… after that it was just hopeless. We had two little boys. He didn’t understand. I sure as hell didn’t understand. It got worse and then it wenlan tot on getting worse and worse. In the end it was destroying everybody. And he was having so many affairs.”

Smith and Stephens ended their marriage in 1973, recalling, “I said ‘It can’t go on’ and he said ‘No, it can’t.’ Honestly, I don’t think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him.”

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Despite the messy end to their marriage, the Harry Potter actress maintained that she continued to care for him.

“I have two wonderful sons and he is the reason for that,” she said.

Stephens went on to marry Irish actress Patricia Quinn, whom he was married to until his death in 1995.

After her divorce, Smith happened to find love again with her first love, Cross.

The pair embarked on a second chance romance, marrying him two years after her divorce.

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She commented on being able to find love with Cross again: “I’m remarkably fortunate. When you meet again someone you should have married in the first place, it’s like a script.

“That kind of luck is too good to be true.”

The private couple ended up raising Smith’s sons that she shared with Stephens, though they did not welcome any together.

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They were married until March 20, 1998, when Cross had passed away.

It’s a loss Smith found hard to recover from, admitting to 60 Minutes in 2013, “I don’t know. It seems a bit pointless. Going on one’s own and not having someone to share it with.”

But when she was asked whether she would be interested in finding someone else to spend her days with, she immediately said, “Absolutely not.”

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Dame Maggie Smith died on Friday, September 27 at the age of 89.

She was surrounded by her family, with her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens saying in a statement that Smith died in a London hospital.

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.

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