Sir Patrick Stewart has shared his heartache over not having a relationship with his children due to years of putting his work first.
The 83-year-old revered actor, best loved for his role as Captain Jean Luc Picard in the sci-fi series Star Trek, shares son, Daniel and daughter, Sophie, with his first wife, Sheila Falconer, but admits he feels “significant grief” over the fact he is now “separated” from them.Opening up about the sad state of affairs, he said: “Given that I’m separated from my children now, – we don’t have relationships – they have become very important. I never thought that this would happen, but both my children are in their 50s – they’re not children anymore, they’re adults. And my relationship with them is practically non-existent.”
“I always put my acting work first, before my family,” the Yorkshire-born star explained to the Irish Independent, adding that “not a day goes by” in which he is “not pained by the memory of my children“, saying he feels "responsible" that they “became who they are in part because of me and my influence or lack of influence on them“.
In a move that Stewart admitted left him "horrified," Daniel followed in his footsteps by becoming an actor, appearing in Shakespeare on stage as well as landing TV roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Silent Witness.
Back in 2009, Stewart told the Independent that he “could have done better as a parent“, but "threw everything into work".
At the time he noted he was trying wherever possible to “correct it“ with his grandchildren, adding his own children "seemed to have forgiven him".
Stewart, whose credits also include X Men and The Page Master, was married to Falconer for 22 years, before the couple split in 1990. His second marriage was to Wendy Neuss in 2000, but they called it a day three years later. He has been married to third wife Sunny Ozell since 2013.
