Fairway TO heaven
Connerywidow says she’ll scatter star’s ashes on Scots golf course
SIR Sean Connery’s widow has revealed she wants to scatter her husband’s ashes where ‘he was happiest’ – on a Scottish golf course.
Speaking last night from their home in the Bahamas, Micheline Roquebrune would not be drawn on which one – but it is thought the Old Course in St Andrews, where Sir Sean was a member of the Royal and Ancient, is among her top choices.
She said: ‘He was at his happiest on a golf course. So as soon as it is possible to travel due to the pandemic, we will come to Scotland as a family and will bring the ashes of Sean.
‘I hope to scatter them on a golf course in Scotland as he always loved playing there.’
Edinburgh-born Sir Sean died in October at the age of 90.
Last night, Moroccan-French painter Ms Roquebrune – who met Sir Sean at a golf tournament in 1970 and became his second wife – revealed how her family’s first Christmas without the star had been ‘difficult for them all’.
The 91-year-old, who has three children from previous marriages, added: ‘He is always in my thoughts – I miss him enormously as he was such a huge part of my life for so many years.
‘It was so different at Christmas without Sean being there with me.
‘All my children were here, however, and they helped me greatly as well as my friends who have always been there when I need them.
‘But it was not the life he would have wanted and this keeps me going, knowing that he is at peace.’
The James Bond actor’s final months were blighted by dementia and, in an exclusive interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday after his death, his wife of 45 years revealed the illness had taken a terrible toll on her ‘gorgeous model of a man’, who had been unable to ‘express himself latterly’. She said: ‘It was no life for him. I was with him all the time and he just slipped away. It was what he wanted. He had dementia and it took its toll on him. He got his final wish to slip away without any fuss.’ Sir Sean was cremated near his home on the Bahamian island of New Providence, where some of his ashes will also be scattered.
Sir Sean learned how to play golf for 1964’s Goldfinger. He took lessons close to Pinewood Studios so that he could look at ease on the course for his on-screen match against Auric Goldfinger, played by expert golfer Gert Frobe.
The Scot became so good within a few years that he could give many of the professionals a run for their money on the fairways.
In his 2018 book Being A Scot, Sir Sean said: ‘I never had a hankering to play golf, despite growing up in Scotland just down the road from Bruntsfield Links, which is one of the oldest golf courses in the world. It wasn’t until I was taught enough golf so it looked like I could outwit accomplished golfer Gert Frobe in Goldfinger that I got the bug. Soon it would nearly take over my life.
‘I began to see golf as a metaphor for living, for in golf you are basically on your own, competing against yourself and always trying to do better. If you cheat, you will be the loser, because you are cheating yourself.’
The golf scene in Goldfinger remained one of his favourite and he revelled in the fact Bond had outwitted his rival by seamlessly switching golf balls.
Sir Sean is widely regarded as the best actor to portray 007, according to polls. The star, whose wealth was estimated at £270 million, was also named ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ in 1989 and ‘Sexiest Man of the Century’ in 1999 – when he was 69.