Patrick Stewart And His Wife Defy Thirty-Eight-Year Age Gap And Listen To Their Hearts

Dec 02, 2020

English actor Sir Patrick Stewart has had a fascinating life. From being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II to winning countless awards over his six-decade acting career, the 80-year-old legend is one talented human being. And so perhaps it’s no wonder that Stewart found an equally talented and artistic partner to share his incredible life with. For those who don’t know, Stewart married 41-year-old singer Sunny Ozell back in 2013 — and despite the 38-year age gap, the artistic pair have made it work.

The unlikely couple met in a Brooklyn pizzeria back in 2008, as The Daily Mail reports. At first, Sunny Ozell, who was working as a waitress, was surprised to see the award-winning actor at the restaurant.

“I was a little freaked out by seeing Patrick Stewart in my restaurant,” Ozell told reporters at The Daily Mail in an interview from 2015.

But Stewart added that it was like love (or at least, attraction) at first sight for him.

“It was an immediate attraction. When she came over to offer us dessert on the house – because her manager had insisted – we got talking,” Stewart explained.

“She very kindly said she wanted to see Macbeth and then I gave her my mobile phone number,” the actor, who was playing in a nearby production of Macbeth, said.

From then on, Stewart and Ozell’s story sounds like something pulled straight from a movie script. Ozell went to the production of Macbeth, sat through the intense play that ends with a beheading, and then, as she was about to leave, the theater company manager caught up with her to bring the singer to see Stewart. Following the play, the two went out to dinner — and the rest, as they say, is history.

One of the most important moments from that early period in their relationship was when Stewart went to see Ozell sing at a club on the Lower East Side. In his interview with The Daily Mail, Stewart explains that in the past he could never be intimate with actresses whom he “didn’t admire” professionally. And so the stakes were naturally high. Luckily, Ozell impressed the acting legend.

“She came on very late at night and by the time she did I was almost at the point of thinking, ‘This is going to be a disaster. I should go now and not return any calls,’” Stewart told The Daily Mail. “But then she sang The Tennessee Waltz. It was beautiful. I had never heard it sung that way. I was very impressed.”

“Talent,” Stewart explained, “is very attractive.” “Never mind what anybody looks like. When you hear wonderful music, the appeal is almost irresistible.”

Ozell said that she and Stewart took the relationship step-by-step at first without rushing into anything, meeting during the week to hang out, to see plays, and to attend concerts together. Five years after that fateful day in a New York pizzeria, the two were getting married.

Fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen became a registered minister through Universal Life Church to officiate the 2013 Lake Tahoe, Nevada wedding. And the two tied the knot on the banks of the lake.

The elephant in the room is, of course, the couple’s age difference. Stewart, who turned 80 in the summer of 2020, is nearly twice Ozell’s age. That leads to some awkward scenarios and pairings. Take Ozell’s father, for example. He is younger than Stewart by half a decade, according to The Daily Mail. And Stewart’s children from his first marriage to Sheila Falconer are around the same age. Stewart also has grandchildren, which made Ozell a grandmother while she was still in her thirties. But when Ozell was asked about the age gap back in 2015, she said that it didn’t matter.

“He is so youthful and I guess I’m kind of an old worry wart so we bridge the gap,” Ozell told reporters. “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.”

Stewart and Ozell, who celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary this September, just go to show that sometimes age is just a number.

What do you think? Do you find the age gap too great between Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell, or is it irrelevant when it comes to love? Let us know, and be sure to pass this on to others to get their opinions.