William Shatner filed for divorce from his fourth wife less than a week after her brother dropped dead from a heart attack, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The 88-year-old Star Trek star filed the papers to end his 18-year marriage with Elizabeth Shatner, 60, in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday.
And his artist and philanthropist wife has revealed that the bombshell court documents dropped while she was in the middle of grieving for her brother.
‘I’m not watching what the press is spinning. My brother just died,’ she told DailyMail.com, when asked about news of the split.
The 88-year-old Star Trek star filed divorce papers to end his 18-year marriage with Elizabeth Shatner, 60, Tuesday
DailyMail.com can reveal that the filing came less than a week after Elizabeth’s brother Daniel Leith Anderson died of a heart attack at age 74
Police confirmed her brother Daniel Leith Anderson – known as Leith – passed away at his home, the family farm near Indianapolis, on December 4, six days before Shatner filed the paperwork.
A Whitestown Police Department officer told DailyMail.com dispatchers received a call at 11.30pm reporting that the 74-year-old had stopped breathing. Anderson is believed to have died from a cardiac arrest.
As well as Elizabeth he leaves behind another sister, Gayle Anderson, 66.
Although Shatner and Elizabeth’s split is overshadowed by tragic timing, DailyMail.com understands their divorce is expected to be simple and over quickly, both having signed a prenuptial agreement before their wedding in 2001 in Lebanon, Indiana.
The Shatners do not have any children from their marriage and are believed to not be planning to claim support from each other.
This is the second time the Star Trek actor has had a divorce overshadowed by grief. His third wife, Nerine Kidd, died of accidental drowning in the couple’s swimming pool shortly after Shatner filed to end their two-year marriage in 1999.
In his 2018 book, Live Long and…What I Learned Along the Way, he wrote that he was devastated by the loss.
‘After my third wife, Nerine, drowned in our swimming pool, I was twisted in grief. I was completely lost. Nerine was an alcoholic and I had failed to save her,’ Shatner wrote.
Elizabeth’s previous marriage to Michael Glenn Martin also ended in tragedy when he died in 1997, while her father Daniel died just seven months after the Shatners tied the knot in 2001.
Anderson (right) passed away at his home, the family farm near Indianapolis, on December 4, six days before the filing, at the age of 74
Elizabeth’s late brother (left) founded a golf coaching company, Indy Golf Lab, in Palo Alto, California in 2002
Elizabeth’s late brother founded a golf coaching company, Indy Golf Lab, in Palo Alto, California in 2002 and it appears he set up a company location out of Zionsville, Indiana where he has coached in recent years.
Anderson described himself on his Facebook page as ‘a retired high tech executive and serial entrepreneur’.
There was a prenup in place and neither is asking for spousal support and they have no children together (pictured in 2003 – two years after their marriage
Shatner was previously married to Marcy Lafferty and Gloria Rand, with whom he has three children, Leslie, 61, Lisabeth, 59, and Melanie, 55.
A Florida radio DJ, 62-year-old Peter Sloan, claims he is Shatner’s son, conceived during a brief love affair between his mother Kathy McNeil and Shatner in 1956 – an allegation which the actor has continuously denied.
Last year a judge tossed Sloan’s $170 million defamation lawsuit against Shatner, who is believed to be worth $100 million, after the Star Trek actor successfully argued ‘it has never been established that Shatner is plaintiff’s biological father’.
The 88-year-old became a sci-fi legend in his role as Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series, and is renowned for playing the eponymous veteran cop in 1980s CBS police drama TJ Hooker.
He met his fourth wife, a former horse trainer, through their shared love of riding. The couple founded an equine therapy charity for veterans called the All Glory Project, named after their horse, All Glory.
It is unclear what will happen to the charity or their animals in the divorce.
The split may also stick a spanner in the works of some of the Shatner family Christmas traditions, which the actor revealed to DailyMailTV in an exclusive interview last year.
The actor said he and 14 family members ‘go bicycling and we can all keep up because we’re all on electric bikes. It’s brought us all together.’
WILLIAM’S MANY LOVES
He is well known for his TV and movie work in his 60 year career.
William wed beautiful actress Gloria Rand (née Rabinowitz) in 1956
But Shatner has also had a colorful love life that resulted in four marriages and three daughters.
Love came early for William who wed beautiful actress Gloria Rand (née Rabinowitz) in 1956.
Their daughters include Leslie, 61, Lisabeth, 58, and Melanie, 55.
Their marriage crumbled when he was making the hit TV series Star Trek and they divorced in 1969.
After his split, he was linked to Nancy Kovak in 1969.
Then he was tied to Police Woman actress Angie Dickinson in 1973.
But love came again when he met Marcy Lafferty, who is the daughter of All In The Family producer Perry Lafferty. They tied the knot in 1973.
They never had kids together, but made great mates with her often accompanying him on his film sets.
But love came again when he met Marcy Lafferty. They tied the knot in 1973
This was one of his most prolific work times. He made the Star Trek movies Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) as well as the TekWars movies.
But their marriage ended in 1996.
For a while he dated Vera Montez.
Then in 1997 the screen star wed Nerine Kidd, his third wife.
But their union was cut short when she died in 1999 (August 9, 1999 to be exact).
She was only 40-years-old at the time.
Shatner found her body at the bottom of their swimming pool when he came home at 10 pm.
No foul play was suspected and it was considered an accident even though the autopsy discovered she had alcohol and Valium (diazepam) in her blood.
He later said in an interview that she ‘meant everything’ to him and was his ‘soul mate.’
With Nerine Kidd, his third wife, who died at age 40 after being found in the bottom of their swimming pool
He later talked about her struggle with addiction in a TV interview: ‘My wife, whom I loved dearly, and who loved me, was suffering with a disease that we don’t like to talk about: alcoholism. And she met a tragic ending because of it.’
In his 2008 book Up Till Now: The Autobiography he said his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy, a former addict, tried to help Nerine.
He wrote, ‘Nimoy’s personal experience of alcoholism now came to play a central role in my life and it helped us bond together in a way I never could have imagined in the early days of Star Trek. After Nerine [Kidd] and I had been to dinner with Leonard and Susan Nimoy one evening, Leonard called and said: “Bill, you know she’s an alcoholic?” I said I did.
‘I married Nerine in 1997, against the advice of many and my own good sense. But I thought she would give up alcohol for me. We had a celebration in Pasadena, and Leonard was my best man. I woke up about eight o’clock the next morning and Nerine was drunk. She was in rehab for 30 days three different times. Twice she almost drank herself to death. Leonard took Nerine to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but she did not want to quit.’
In 2001 he wed his fourth wife Elizabeth.
They lasted 18 years but now William and wife Elizabeth are working through a divorce; seen here at the Emmys in 2004