Maggie Smith Was Married Twice Over the Course of Her Legendary Acting Career

During a decades-long career, Maggie Smith became one of the most recognizable actresses in the world. To younger generations, she was a key part of Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter films, but she was already a two-time Academy Award winner by then and had worked steadily on stage and screen for decades.

Following the news of her death, many wanted to know more about Maggie's personal life, including whether she was ever married. Here's what we know about her two marriages.

Maggie was married twice over the course of her life, but one marriage lasted much longer than the other. She was married first to actor Robert Stephens. The two first met in the 1960s, and at the time, he was married to his second wife, Tarn Bassett. After their divorce, though, Robert and Maggie were married, and they welcomed their first son, Chris, not long after they were married in 1967. Their second son, Toby, was born two years later.

The two appeared in two films together: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, for which she won her first Oscar, and Travels With My Aunt in 1972. In 1970, reports suggested that Robert attempted suicide while playing Sherlock Holmes on the stage.

In 2004, Maggie told The Guardian that Robert's suicide attempt was the beginning of the end of their relationship.

"I said, 'It can't go on' and he said, 'No, it can't.' Honestly, I don't think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him," she explained. She left him in 1973, and he eventually married the actress Patricia Quinn, whom he was married to until 1975. Although Maggie went on to remarry as well, she maintained that she still cared about Robert even after they split.

Although they didn't get married until after her split from Robert, Maggie and Beverley Cross had known each other since 1952 when she was a student at Oxford. The two remained connected both personally and professionally. She met him when she was just 18, and she also said that she blames Beverley for her relationship with Robert, because she first met him at the National Theatre, which he insisted she join in spite of her objections.

Beverley helped Maggie raise her two young sons, and the two were married until his death in 1998.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Maggie spoke briefly about his death and the effect it had on her.

"I don't know. It seems a bit pointless," she said in 2013. "Going on one's own and not having someone to share it with."

When asked if she was interested in finding another relationship, she said that she definitively was not. Although she kept working until close to the end of her life, it's clear that her romantic life was defined by Beverley, who she knew even before her first marriage.