Robert Wagner's Wife In Wheelchair, Daughter Battling Addiction
Hart to Hart alum Robert Wagner isn't having the easiest year.
According to a Radar Online exclusive, published on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, the Hollywood icon has reportedly been struggling in his personal life ever since he was labeled a "person of interest" in the ongoing investigation into the mysterious death of his late wife, actress Natalie Wood, earlier this year.
The gossip rag has claimed that Wagner's wife of 28 years, former "Bond girl" Jill St. John, was recently seen "looking sickly" while catching a flight at Los Angeles International Airport, where the 78-year-old actress was reportedly "forced to use a wheelchair" to get to her gate. At the time of this writing, further details surrounding the alleged sighting have not been revealed nor publicly commented on by Wagner's team.
However, it should be noted that St. John joined her husband and stepdaughter, Courtney Wagner, at the Gold Coast Arts Center/Film Festival Gala on Long Island, N.Y. on Saturday, Oct. 27, Broadway World reports. Wagner was honored with the Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award at the event in celebration of his six decades-long career in the entertainment industry.
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Meanwhile, a source cited by Radar Online has alleged that Courtney, 44, is currently struggling amid her longtime battle with addiction. "Courtney continues her battle with prescription pills and alcohol," the insider said, explaining that the jewelry designer allegedly won't agree to seek treatment in rehab. "Robert doesn't know what to do! He's tried everything he can to support her sobriety."
The source went on to connect Courtney's alleged substance abuse with the loss of her mother as a child, as well as the untimely death of her fiancé, Max Leroy, in 2005 following a motorcycle accident. "Courtney has missed her mother her entire life," the insider said of Wood and Wagner's youngest child, adding, "She was old enough to understand at age seven she had died, but has never truly processed what happened to her."
According to People magazine, at the time of Natalie Wood's passing on Nov. 29, 1981, she had somehow fallen off of a boat while sailing near Catalina Island with Robert Wagner, the yacht's captain Dennis Davern, and her Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken. Her death was initially ruled an accidental drowning. However, the case was reopened in 2011.
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As Nicki Swift previously reported, it was first revealed in February 2018 that Wagner, 88, was officially being considered a "person of interest" by Los Angeles law enforcement in the investigation surrounding Wood's death. "He's a person of interest. [The investigators are] calling him that for the very first time because they believe that this is a suspicious death and they now believe, on what they've gathered, that he was the last person to see her alive," 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty said at the time on CBS This Morning. "They also say that his accounts over the years just don't match the evidence that they've gathered and the witnesses."
Despite the increasing pressure for Wagner to publicly comment on the latest development in the case, the NCIS star has remained mum on the matter. However, he previously stated in his 2008 memoir, titled Pieces of my Heart, that "nobody knows" how his late wife fell into the water. However, he noted that her death occurred shortly after he and Walken had gotten into an argument about her career. "There are only two possibilities," he wrote. "Either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."
For her part, Courtney Wagner opened up about her mother's tragic death during an interview with The Times in 2004. "I don't remember very much about my mother" she said (via the Daily Mail), but added, "I do remember her laugh and the way she [smelled], and I remember her hands — things like that that made me feel close to her."
She went on to credit her famous father for shielding his children from the media frenzy surrounding the loss at the time, saying, "I think that everything Dad did then ... brought us all closer together. And I always had compassion and respect for him for keeping the family together — it could easily have fallen apart."
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.