10 Celebs Who Chose to Not Remarry and Remain Faithful After Their Spouses Passed

Hollywood seems like a modern fairy tale where celebrities find love, build a family, and live happily ever after. But this way of life doesn’t protect against painful losses, including losing a spouse. And it’s important when our favorite stars talk about living through grief after losing someone they loved to convince us that we’re not alone.

1. Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson’s relationship was something straight out of a movie. They met in 1993 while working on a Broadway play and immediately fell in love.

Neeson became a widower after almost 15 years of marriage. The tragedy happened in March 2009 when the British actress fell coming down a beginner slope while on a ski vacation in Canada.

Neeson has never stopped singing his late wife’s praises, saying, “They say the hardest thing in the world is losing someone you love. My wife died unexpectedly. She brought me so much joy. She was my everything.”

He continued, “Those 16 years of being her husband taught me how to love unconditionally. We have to stop and be thankful for our spouses. Because, one day, when you look up from your phone, they won’t be there anymore. What I truly learned most of all is live and love every day like it’s your last. Because, one day, it will be.”

2. John Travolta

John Travolta and Kelly Preston had a love-filled marriage. They met in 1987 on the set of The Experts. And as Travolta later recalled, the duo had “immediate chemistry” upon crossing paths.

Travolta lost his wife in 2020. The actress kept her diagnosis and cancer battle private for 2 years. At the time of her death, Travolta said, “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side. Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered.”

In 2021, John Travolta celebrated his first Mother’s Day without his late wife. He shared a sweet tribute: “Dearest Kelly, you brought into my life 3 of the most wonderful children I have ever known. Thank you. We love and miss you. Happy Mother’s Day.”

3. Celine Dion

Celine Dion and René Angélil were married for a whopping 21 years. Their relationship was like a true love story. He was her manager for decades, and the 2 married in 1994.

Angélil passed away in 2016 after a years-long battle with throat cancer. “Before he left, it was very, very difficult for all of us. For me especially, and my children, to see the man of my life die a little bit more every day. And when he left, it was kind of a relief for me that the man that I love, the only man that I kissed, the only man that I loved,” the iconic singer said.

She continued, “Yeah. I never kissed another man in my life. So the man of my life was my partner, and we were one. So when he stopped suffering I said to myself, he’s okay. And he deserves not to suffer.”

To mark the sixth anniversary of his death, Dion wrote on Instagram, “I would be lying if I said I’m fine, I think of you at least a hundred times, cause in the echo of my voice I hear your words just like you’re there,” she concluded. “I miss you — Céline xx.”

4. Yoko Ono

John Lennon and Yoko Ono were definitely the most creative power couple of the ‘70s. The pair first met in November 1966 at a London gallery, where Ono was preparing for an exhibition of her work. They immediately hit it off and started a turbulent romance.

After 11 years of marriage, Yoko Ono became a widow when John Lennon tragically died. Lennon was her third husband, and she never remarried. “The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience,” Lennon’s widow, Ono, wrote in a Twitter tribute.

5. Martin Short

Martin Short became a widower in 2010 when his wife of 30 years, Nancy Dolman, passed away from ovarian cancer.

“Our marriage was a triumph. So it’s tough. She died in 2010, but I still communicate with her all the time,” the actor noted. “It’s ’Hey Nan,’ you know? How would she react to this decision or that, especially regarding our 3 kids.”

6. Vanessa Bryant

Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant’s decades-long marriage was filled with romance. Their whirlwind relationship started in November 1999.

The NBA legend died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 alongside the couple’s daughter, Gianna. “This pain is unimaginable, but you just have to get up and push forward,” Vanessa Bryant said. “Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again. But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my three other girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”

7. Iman

David Bowie and Iman’s love story is one for the ages. The couple met in 1990 on a blind date, and they later tied the knot in 1992.

It was love at first sight for Bowie. “My attraction to her was immediate and all-encompassing,” he later recalled. “I couldn’t sleep for the excitement of our first date. That she would be my wife, in my head, was a done deal. I’d never gone after anything...with such passion in all my life.”

The legendary singer died following an 18-month battle with liver cancer in January 2016. “I don’t think it will ever go away, but the acceptance of it, and the remembrance of the joy, rather than saying every memory that, ’Oh, I wish he was here, I wish we could experience this together.’ Now I remember the 26 joyful years I had with my husband,” the supermodel said.

Iman added that she could never remarry. “People say to me when they talk, ’Oh, I loved your late husband,’ and I said, ’He’s not my late husband, he’s my husband,’ so that’s how I feel about it. This was truly the love of my life, and I just wait until I meet him again.”

8. Peter Cushing

The legendary Frankenstein, Van Helsing and Tarkin from Star Wars simply adored his wife. They were married in 1943 and Helena passed away in 1971. Cushing expressed feeling that his life had come to an end following the death of his beloved. The grief was so profound that in 1986, when his initial autobiography was released, he didn’t include any accounts of his life after her passing.

9. Betty White

Betty’s third husband proposed to her at least twice before she accepted. They were married for 20 years, and in 2010, Betty told Larry King that her marriage to Ludden was simply “the best. He was the love of my life.” King ventured that she never got over him, and she agreed. “Never,” she said. “I never will.”

10. Julie Andrews

In 2015, the actress admitted that she was still living through the loss of her spouse and thought things would have been better with him. Julie said, “We were married 41 years and it was a love story.”