Grease Star Stockard Channing Says She’s ‘Happy Being A Recluse’

Grease star Stockard Channing has opened up about what she has described as her “reclusive” life in London.

The 82-year-old actor recently wrote an essay for the Sunday Times, in which she spoke about what spurred her move across the pond.

“Since just before Covid I’ve been living in London,” Stockard explained. “My partner, Daniel [Gillham], died in 2014 and it was more devastating than I realised; it had a lag effect.

“The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine.”

“I’ve lived alone since I lost Daniel and I’m happy being a recluse,” she continued. “I was married four times before Daniel and they all represent epochs of me.”

“Children were thought about and, yeah, I think about them now because it’d be great to have someone taking care of me,” she added. “But, hey, children can be just as selfish as everybody else out there.”

Stockard was married four times before ending up with Daniel Gillham, who was a cinematographer. Her previous husbands were Walter Channing Jr., Paul Schmidt, David Debin and David Rawle.

The Oscar nominee and her late partner never married, something she attributed to her previous relationships.

“What have I learned from my divorces? I know that nobody gets married to get divorced. I don’t think I’ll get married another time,” Stockard wrote in an essay for The Guardian in 2006.

“I’ve been living with my partner [cinematographer Daniel Gillham] for over 20 years, so… It would feel quite silly, actually.”