The actor William Hurt, who is dead at the age of 71, leaves behind two ex-wives and several girlfriends who made headlines. He did not have a current wife.
Over the years, his tangled love life caused headlines, including a palimony suit and divorces, and produced four children with three different women.
“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time,” a family statement from his son Will said on March 13, 2022, according to Deadline.
Hurt was an Oscar-nominated actor known for movies like “Children of a Lesser God,” “Broadcast News,” “Gorky Park,” and “Body Heat.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Actress Marlee Matlin Accused Hunt of Abusing Her When They Dated
William Hurt has passed away at age 71
According to E! News, the actress Marlee Matlin accused Hurt of abusing her during a two-year relationship with started when they co-starred in the movie “Children of a Lesser God.”
“I always had fresh bruises every day. And if I had a split lip, or if…I mean, there were a lot of things that happened that were not pleasant,” Matlin told Access Hollywood, according to E News. “I was always afraid…of him, but I loved him. Or maybe I thought I did. But look, I was 19, he was 35.”
In a statement to E! News on Tuesday, Hurt said: “My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.”
2. Hurt Was Married to Mary Beth Hurt Before They Divorced in 1982
GettyActress Mary Beth Hurt arrives at the 55th Annual Drama Desk Award at FH LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center on May 23, 2010 in New York City.
Hurt was first married to Mary Beth Hurt, an actress, but they divorced in 1982 after a “long separation” according to The New York Times.
Mary Beth Hurt testified in a court case involving Sandra Jennings, a former ballet dancer, that she told Hurt to marry Jennings but he refused.
Mary Beth Hurt told her that William Hurt claimed he was “finished with marriage.”
3. Hurt Married a Second Time
GettyWilliam Hurt with his son Sam.
Hurt was also briefly married to Heidi Henderson, the daughter of Skitch Henderson, according to IMDB. Skitch Henderson was the bandleader of “The Tonight Show.”
According to The Los Angeles Times, he met Henderson “while they were undergoing alcohol and drug rehabilitation at the Hazelden center in Center City, Minn.”
They too later divorced.
4. Hurt Had Children With Three Women, Including a French Actress
GettySandrine Bonnaire
The IMDB site listed Hurt’s children as “Alex Hurt (born 1983) with Sandra Jennings, sons Samuel Hurt (born August 7, 1989) and William Hurt Jr. (born 1991) with ex-wife Heidi Henderson, and daughter Jeanne Bonnaire-Hurt (born February 1, 1994) with Sandrine Bonnaire.”
In 1994, The Los Angeles Times reported of Bonnaire and Hurt, “Hurt is now temporarily apart from his girlfriend, French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, the mother of their 6-month-old daughter (and his fourth child), Jeanne, both of whom are back in France.”
5. Hurt’s Girlfriend Sandra Jennings Filed a Palimony Suite Against Him
GettyWhat was William Hurt’s cause of death?
Before they divorced, Mary Beth Hurt testified that William Hurt told her that Jennings was pregnant with his child. Jennings was claiming that because she lived with Hurt for five weeks in South Carolina, it amounted to a common-law marriage, The Times reported.
The New York Times article reported that Jennings was frustrated Hurt would not marry her.
The Buffalo News reported that Jennings is the mother of Hunt’s son, Alex Hurt.
In 1989, the Chicago Tribune referred to the “tawdry tale of actor William Hurt and Sandra Jennings, Hurt`s former live-in lover and mother of his child.”
According to the Associated Press, the allegations got ugly. “In court papers, she said she left Hurt in 1984 because he was physically and verbally abusive, claiming he once slapped her while she held their then-5-day-old son. On another occasion, after a drinking binge, she says, he urinated on their couch,” the AP reported of Jennings.
The Tribune reported that Hurt claimed he never promised to marry Jennings and wasn’t sure if he loved her.
Deadline reported that Hurt had been fighting prostate cancer since 2018.
He had “terminal prostate cancer that had spread to the bone,” Deadline reported. According to TMZ, he was trying treatments out of Berkeley and was believed to be in recovery from the cancer.
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