Sunny Ozell, the widow of Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart, has shared an emotional tribute to the actor two weeks after his unexpected death at 86.
Stewart died at his Los Angeles home on October 28 after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.” A statement posted to his Instagram said his “beloved” wife, Ozell, was by his side.
The English actor achieved worldwide fame as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 to 1994. He later reprised the role in several films and in the series Star Trek: Picard, which aired from 2020 to 2023.
He was also widely praised for portraying Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise between 2000 and 2017.
On Wednesday, 47-year-old Ozell posted a photograph of the couple embracing and said they had left “nothing unsaid” before Stewart’s death.
She wrote: “Today marks two weeks since Patrick passed, and the grief continues to come in waves. But I’ve also been experiencing such deep, profound gratitude. We left nothing unsaid.
Sunny Ozell has paid tribute to her late husband, Star Trek icon Patrick Stewart, two weeks after his death at 86. Above, the couple in 2023
Stewart died on October 28. He was best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek
“He knew I loved him, and I know he loved me. Patrick and I truly, authentically saw one another, and we amplified each other’s best qualities. We shared nearly two decades together, and we filled those years with so much *living*.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the public response to Patrick’s death, and while I’m not at all surprised that he touched so many, I’m sincerely moved by the outpouring of sadness and loss.
“Thank you all for your condolences; they mean so, so much to me. My heart had to grow to contain my love for Patrick, and he changed me for the better, forever.”
Ozell was Stewart’s third wife. The couple married in 2013.
A statement released after his death said: “He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all.”
The statement continued: “We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace.
“His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre.
“He explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity and brought hope not only to the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but into science fiction’s most iconic final frontier aboard the Starship Enterprise.
“His professional accomplishments were humbly matched by his philanthropy and activism on behalf of human rights, survivors of domestic violence, global refugees, veterans’ mental health services, and animal welfare, particularly his cherished foster pitties.
Stewart died after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” spokesman Kelly Bush Novak announced. Above, in June 2024
“He was a Knight, Chancellor, motor sport enthusiast, and lifelong Huddersfield Football fan. He will be remembered for the dignity, compassion and humanity he brought to every role—in his art and life.”
Although he became best known for blockbuster films and television, the classically trained actor also built an outstanding career on the Shakespearean stage.
Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and made his Broadway theatre debut in 1971 in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He later won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Antony and Cleopatra in the West End.
He played roles ranging from Claudius to Macbeth, regularly performed a one-man version of A Christmas Carol and appeared in West End and Broadway productions of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot alongside his friend Ian McKellen.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in 2010 for services to drama.
The actor married three times and is survived by two children. He first married Sheila Falconer in 1966. They divorced in 1990 after having a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Sophie.
His second wife was Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They married in 2000 and divorced three years later.
Stewart’s third and final marriage was to singer-songwriter Ozell, whom he married in 2013.
In a 2015 interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine, Ozell said the most difficult part of their relationship had been meeting Stewart’s children from his first marriage.
Stewart was also acclaimed for playing Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series from 2000 to 2017
Stewart is pictured with the Star Trek cast in 1987
Stewart married Sheila Falconer in 1966, and they divorced in 1990 after welcoming Daniel and Sophie. Above, in 1992
His second wife was Wendy Neuss. Above, in 2002
She said: “That was territory I trod on very lightly. I didn’t want to force myself on them, but they were very welcoming.”
Ozell also said the couple’s age difference was never an important issue. “He is so youthful and I guess I’m kind of an old worry wart, so we bridge the gap. It doesn’t come up much. He’s in better shape than me, which infuriates me.”
Stewart added: “I remember my 40th birthday vividly and I swear to God it was last week. I have a little bit of arthritis but I don’t feel any different.”
The pair met through a mutual friend in 2008, when American singer-songwriter Ozell was working as a waitress in New York.
They married in September 2013 on the shores of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in a ceremony officiated by Stewart’s close friend and fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen.
McKellen registered as a minister with the Universal Life Church, which promotes freedom of religion, so he could officiate at Stewart and Ozell’s wedding beside Lake Tahoe.
“It was an immediate attraction,” Stewart recalled of their first meeting.
“When she came over to offer us dessert on the house—because her manager had insisted—we got talking.
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From left: Stewart’s son Daniel, daughter Sophie, Stewart and his then-wife Wendy in July 2001
Stewart married his third wife in September 2013 beside Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in a ceremony officiated by Sir Ian McKellen. Above, Stewart and McKellen in London in 2020
“She very kindly said she wanted to see Macbeth and then I gave her my mobile phone number.”
“Instinct is everything in a situation like that,” Stewart said, noting that he had only recently divorced his second wife, Neuss.
“I felt I was talking to a really nice, intelligent, interesting, gorgeous woman. It’s rare that those elements all come together at the same time.”
In 2023, Stewart told the Irish Independent that he had experienced “significant grief” over his estrangement from Daniel, 59, and Sophie, 54.
“Given that I’m separated from my children now—we don’t have relationships—they have become very important,” he said.
The actor said he was surprised and troubled by regret over his “non-existent” relationship with the children he had with Falconer.
“I never thought this would happen, but both my children are in their 50s—they’re not children anymore, they’re adults,” Stewart said. “And my relationship with them is practically non-existent.”
He appeared to accept responsibility for the state of those relationships, saying: “I always put my acting work first, before my family.”
Stewart said “not a day goes by” without him regretting the situation. He remained “pained by the memory of my children” and by memories of “who they were.”
He added that he was troubled by “a sense of responsibility that they became who they are in part because of me and my influence or lack of influence on them.”
Stewart told the newspaper that he “could’ve done better as a parent, when my kids were little.”
“I was just obsessed with my work, and everything else took second place. I’m trying to correct that now, whenever possible with my grandchildren. And my own children seem to have forgiven me,” he said.
Stewart also discussed his relationship with Daniel and Sophie in his 2023 memoir, Making It So, describing it as “a work in progress.”
He wrote: “The hurt caused by my split with their mother has never fully gone away. I do get on wonderfully with their children—my four remarkable grandchildren; the eldest in his early 20s and the other three in their teens.”
Stewart’s distinguished career began when he was 12. He performed in theatres across England before making his London stage debut in 1966 and touring with the Old Vic company, one of the world’s most respected theatrical institutions.
That same year, he joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company. He made his first Broadway appearance as Snout in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1971 and went on to maintain a 27-year association with the company.
Stewart’s passion for Shakespeare began after his English teacher, Cecil Dormand, gave him a copy of The Merchant of Venice.
He told The Guardian in 2021: “I barely understood a word but I loved the feel of the words and sounds in my mouth. A 400-year-old writer reached out a hand in invitation to me [and] I felt a sense of an internal, private me being released and connecting with something mysterious, alien and exciting. I was hooked.”
Stewart remained deeply grateful to Dormand, who he said saved him from a “dull, uncomfortable and sometimes scary home life, living with an abusive father,” by placing Shakespeare in his hands and showing him the possibility of a different future.
Dormand encouraged Stewart to become an actor and even paid for his first formal acting lessons. Stewart remained thankful throughout his life, often reflecting on how different his path might have been had he never met the teacher.
Stewart with his A Christmas Carol award at the 1994 Olivier Awards
The actor received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December 1996
For the first 25 years of his career, Stewart remained primarily a stage actor, despite taking several small roles in British and American films from 1973 onward.
He once said: “All I know is that I have to act. It’s a compulsion. I’m driven to it. I wouldn’t say that I would die if it were taken away from me but a large part of me would shrivel up.”
His international breakthrough came in 1987, when he was cast as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the science-fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Stewart was so certain he would be dismissed that he left his luggage unpacked for six weeks, convinced he would not “survive beyond the pilot.”
“I thought the producers would come to their senses and realize they’d made a grave error in casting me. Eventually it became clear to me that not only wasn’t I going to go away, the series wasn’t going to go away. I stayed and have relished every moment,” he said.
The part made Stewart a global star. His polished voice and commanding presence turned Picard into one of television’s most memorable characters and placed him at the centre of The Next Generation.
He later returned as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a series of successful Star Trek films, including Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
A proud Yorkshireman and lifelong Huddersfield Town supporter, Stewart was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, on July 13, 1940. His parents were textile worker Gladys Barrowclough and army personnel Alfred Stewart.
Stewart struggled at school and said much of his childhood was marked by fear because his father was often violent and abusive.
He appeared in other films and stage productions, including Masterminds, an episode of The Simpsons and A Christmas Carol. He was also considered for Doctor Who: The Movie and for the role of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), which ultimately went to Johnny Depp.
Stewart played Claudius in Hamlet in 2008 and received his third Laurence Olivier Award
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in 2010 for services to drama
Stewart also put his precise British diction to comic use in animated television shows and lent his voice to films including Gnomeo and Juliet (2011), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (2013) and The Emoji Movie (2017).
Despite his many screen successes, Stewart never abandoned Shakespearean theatre. His acclaimed performance in the title role of Macbeth earned him a Tony Award nomination.
In 2008, he played Claudius in Hamlet and won his third Laurence Olivier Award for the performance. Two years later, he received his knighthood.
Accepting the honour, Stewart called it “an honor that embraces those actors, directors and creative teams who have in these recent years helped fill my life with inspiration, companionship and sheer fun.”
