William Shatner's Four Marriages, Shares Three Daughters With Gloria Rand, Found Love Again In 90s

From the bridge of the starship Enterprise as ‘Captain James T. Kirk’, to the courts of Boston Legal, William Shatner's roles have spanned genre and decades alike. Born in 1931 in Montreal, Canada, Shatner is an actor, author, director, musician, and public figure for well over seventy years now. He has won awards, travelled to space, pushed creative boundaries, and inspired generations of fans.

In recent years, Shatner’s life off-screen has taken on dramatic turns. In March 2024, he publicly revealed a diagnosis of stage-4 melanoma after discovering a lump under his right ear. He had to go through a series of surgeries and immunotherapy. Amid his health struggles, Shatner’s personal life, especially his marriages, has gained the limelight once again. His relationship journey reveals a man who has loved fiercely and risked many heartbreaks. So, let’s look at Shatner’s journey through his four marriages and love life.

William Shatner and his first marriage to Gloria Rand

In 1956, William Shatner married Gloria Rand, a Canadian actress. This was long before Star Trek, and the wide recognition that it gave to him. Gloria and Shatner fell in love before he had become a household name, and together they have three daughters: Leslie (born 1958), Lisabeth (1961), and Melanie (1964).

These were the early years of Shatner in Hollywood, and he was struggling to balance his career with family responsibilities. Shatner himself has called his marriage to Gloria ‘lopsided.’ He admitted that he was not good at being married. His early career demanded long working hours, and his frequent absence from his family’s life started to weigh heavily on the couple's marriage.

Gloria used to stay home with the children, while Shatner was often away. He has written in his autobiography Up Till Now that while he was trying to support his family, he felt he was getting ‘so little joy’ out of his marriage that the resentment, misunderstandings, and distance built up. Gloria and Shatner’s marriage ended in 1969.

William Shatner and his long-term partnership with Marcy Lafferty 

In 1973, Shatner married Marcy Lafferty, an actress known for her various television roles. The relationship came when he was more established and seasoned as an actor. However, he was still under the pressure of fame that Hollywood brought with it. Shatner and Marcy shared interests, particularly in horses; they bred them, rode them, and even invested in them.

Marcy was a present partner and even played a role in helping Shatner raise his daughters from his previous marriage. Marcy and Shatner’s marriage lasted for roughly 23 years. It was his longest marriage, but the couple never had any kids together. Many have described their split in 1996 as 'amicable'. However, their divorce settlement came with unusual requests, such as Marcy receiving horse semen from some of Shatner’s prize stallions.

William Shatner and Nerine Kidd’s tragic love story

After the end of his marriage to Marcy, Shatner found love again in Nerine Kidd, a model and actress. They married in 1997, with high hopes and strong attachment. Shatner had called Nerine the love of his life and his soulmate. However, friends, including his longtime Star Trek colleague, Leonard Nimoy, cautioned him not to marry Nerine due to her struggles with alcoholism, but Shatner believed in her and hoped she would change.

Tragically, Nerine died in August 1999 in an accidental drowning in their Los Angeles home’s swimming pool. The reports showed significant levels of alcohol and valium in her system, and were cited as the reason behind her accidental drowning. The aftermath of Nerine’s death was devastating for Shatner.

Shatner had spoken openly of his grief, of the sense of loss he felt after losing Nerine, and of how time forced him to confront his own vulnerabilities. He later founded the Nerine Shatner Foundation, which focuses on helping women recover from their chemical dependency and addictions. Nerine and Shatner’s marriage might be short in terms of time they spent together, but it remains one of the most significant parts of his life.

Elizabeth Anderson Martin and William Shatner

A few years after Nerine’s death, Shatner met Elizabeth Anderson Martin, a horse trainer and photographer. She is about 27 years his junior. Their shared love of horses, nature, and artistic expression drew them together, and the couple got married in 2001. The marriage lasted for nearly two decades. But in 2019, Shatner filed for divorce, and the divorce was finalised in early 2020.

According to Shatner, the reason for divorce was largely practical rather than rooted in bitterness or distaste. The stresses of age, differences in priorities, the challenges of schedules and health were some of the issues that led to the couple’s divorce.

Yet, some love stories aren’t always controlled by legal papers. In 2024, Shatner said he was living with Elizabeth again. He told Parade that the two of them have ‘remarried in effect’. They haven’t held another ceremony and are not legally remarried, but their renewed partnership appears to offer them companionship, comfort, and stability in their later years.

William Shatner’s recent health struggles 

Shatner’s stage-4 melanoma diagnosis in 2024 hit him like a blow. He discovered a lump under his right ear, and his doctors initially dismissed it, but when he went for a second opinion, the cancer was discovered.  He also lives with tinnitus, which causes a permanent ringing in his ears; it happened as a result of being too close to a special effects explosion during filming of Star Trek’s “Arena” episode in 1967. 

These health concerns, and the reminders of how fragile human life is, have changed Shatner's views of living. Now at 94, William Shatner’s love story continues its surprising chapters. He is once again living with Elizabeth, and she remains central in his life. Thieir friends have described them as soulmates time and again.

William Shatner's love life is not a flawless romance with a fairy-tale ending. Instead, it is a real story of how people mess up, lose their loved ones, fall in love, drift apart and at times find their way back to one another. 

Also Read: Inside 'Bachelorette' Star, Peter Kraus, Hana Ostapchuk's Love Story, Engaged, All Set To Be Parents

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