Celebrity Couples
Was Robert Redford Married? Inside the Late Actor’s Relationship History
Following Robert Redford‘s death at the age of 89 on Tuesday, September 16, there’s been a renewed interest in the late actor’s personal life. Redford had been married twice, first to Lola Van Wagenen, then to Sibylle Szaggars.
But was he married at the time of his death? Scroll down for the answer to that, as well as everything else we know about his relationship history and more.
Was Robert Redford still with his wife?
Yes, Redford and Szaggars, an environmentalist and artist from Germany, were still together at the time of his death. The two met in 1996 when Szaggars came to ski at Redford’s Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. He invited her and a group of friends to dinner and said on a 2014 panel that Szaggars being unfamiliar with his work as an actor is part of what attracted him to her.
“It was a wonderful beginning of a relationship because it began as two human beings meeting each other and finding a connection as two human beings, rather than being colored by success,” Redford explained.
In 2008, Redford confirmed to the German magazine Bunte that he and Szaggars were engaged. The two tied the knot in a private ceremony in Szaggars’ native Germany the following year.
While the two were very private throughout their nearly 30-year romance, they did attend a number of red carpet events together, most of which were in support of their various charity efforts.
During a 2011 interview with AARP, Redford gushed, “She’s a very special person. She’s younger than I am and European, which I like, so that’s a whole new life.” While Szaggars’ exact age is unknown, she’s estimated to be about 20 years younger than Redford.
What happened to Robert Redford’s first wife?
Redford’s first wife was Lola Van Wagenen, whom he married in 1958. They were together for nearly 30 years before their divorce in the 1980s.
“It was mutual and it was right to move on,” Redford told The Telegraph in 2001, adding that his Hollywood career did take a toll on the relationship. “We still have great love, great affection, great friendship. It is wonderful, and I think we probably deserve credit for it because the kids are great, they came through it OK.”
Redford and Van Wagenen, a Mormon from Utah, met when she was 17 and he was 20. They married two years later. “I met him in California where we happened to live in the same apartment building,” she told Seven Days. “He was an unknown, struggling, young visual artist then.”
Following the divorce, Van Wagenen married George Burrill in 2002, and they are still together today. Now in her mid-80s, Van Wagenen continues her work as an activist. She has her Ph.D in American History, serves on the boards of various organizations, and has also done work as a film producer.
Did Robert Redford have kids?
Redford and Van Wagenen shared four children. Their eldest son, Scott, was born in 1959 and died at just 2 months old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. “Of course it was traumatic, and how that plays out over time, I don’t know,” Redford previously told Esquire, per People. “We had to deal with it. You have to move on. And we had other children who came. But something like that doesn’t get completely dismissed. It probably shows up in various small ways you’re not even aware of.”
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One year after Scott’s death, Van Wagenen gave birth to her and Redford’s first daughter Shauna. A second son, James, followed in 1962. He was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis and had to have two liver transplants in the 1990s. James died from bile-duct cancer in 2020.
Redford and Van Wagenen’s youngest child was daughter Amy, who was born in 1970.
Through his three children, Redford had seven grandchildren. Shauna and husband Eric Schlosser share daughter Anna (born 1991) and son Conor (born 1992), while James welcomed children Dylan (1991) and Lena (1995) with his wife before he died. Amy shares three kids, Eden (2008) and twin daughters (2010), with ex-husband Matt August.
