Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart died at the age of 86, with his long-time spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak announcing that he passed away in the care of his wife, Sunny Ozell. The couple's relationship had drawn attention due to their nearly four-decade age gap.
A Wedding With Two Ceremonies
The pair married on September 7, 2013, with Sir Ian McKellen officiating. The Lord of the Rings star had earlier revealed his role on The Jonathan Ross Show, telling the host: "I am going to marry Patrick." Their ceremony took place at a scenic spot by Lake Tahoe in Nevada.
Due to a legal issue with Ian's ordination credentials in that state, they also held a spontaneous, legally-binding second ceremony at a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, California, to finalise their marriage under state law. Patrick later described their wedding reception on the banks of Lake Tahoe as an incredibly rowdy, high-energy celebration. Sunny added that being kicked out of their own venue was probably a good thing, because "everyone was really, properly drunk."
Meeting and Early Relationship
At the time of their wedding, Patrick was 73 while singer-songwriter Sunny was 35. He was unphased by the age gap, joking about it with his father-in-law, saying: "[He] is five years younger than me but calls me son." In an interview with The Mail on Sunday's Event magazine, he shared that although Sunny's father was initially "not thrilled" about their relationship, the two men eventually became good friends, with her father calling him on the phone and saying, "Hey son, it's your father here."
The couple first met in 2008 at a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, where Sunny was working as a waitress. Patrick was in town performing Macbeth at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She offered him a complimentary dessert, which sparked a conversation, and she mentioned she had wanted to see the show but it had sold out.
Life Together and Advocacy
Patrick then did something out of character, which he later admitted he had never done before in his life, and gave her his personal phone number, telling her he could sort her a ticket when the production transferred to Broadway. When she took him up on the offer and attended the show, the two went out for dinner afterwards, marking the official start of their relationship.
Shortly after they met, she also invited him to watch her perform a midnight gig on the Lower East Side. He later admitted he didn't even know what a "gig" was, joking that he thought it was a horse-drawn carriage. He said he feared she might be a terrible singer, which would make continuing to date her incredibly awkward. However, when she sang The Tennessee Waltz, he found her voice so beautiful that his doubts vanished.
They moved in together in 2012 after he purchased a property in Brooklyn's Park Slope. In 2017, they became viral internet sensations when they began fostering a pit bull named Ginger. They used their platform to advocate for Wags and Walks, an L.A.-based rescue organisation, inspiring thousands of fans to look into animal rescue.
