Patrick Stewart: My father-in-law is five years younger than me... but calls me son!
TO STAR Trek fans, he will always be Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but to his fatherin-law, Sir Patrick Stewart is known as ‘son’ – even though the actor is five years OLDER than his wife’s dad.
The 75-year-old star is married to musician Sunny Ozell, who is 39 years his junior. And although Ozell’s father was initially ‘not thrilled’ with the romance, the two men have grown to be friends.
Stewart said: ‘He rings me up and says, “Hey son, it’s your father here.”’
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine today, Ozell added that the hardest part of their relationship was meeting Stewart’s children from his first marriage to Sheila Falconer, who are now aged 42 and 47.
She said: ‘That was territory I trod on very lightly. I didn’t want to force myself on them but they were very welcoming.’
And she said the age gap was irrelevant. ‘He is so youthful and I guess I’m kind of an old worry wart so we bridge the gap. It doesn’t come up much. He’s in better shape than me, which infuriates me.’
And Stewart said: ‘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.’
The couple met through a mutual friend in 2008 when American singer-songwriter Ozell was working as a waitress in New York. They married in September 2013 on the banks of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in a wedding officiated by Stewart’s best friend and fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen.
Both later confessed that while the ceremony was touching, the reception was a boisterous affair.