Savage. She just ripped into me. Then I met her once and her hand was shaking. She said, “You must hate me.” Then she asked me if I wanted to have a drink. I said, “No, thank you.” Just before turning 89, Robert Redford made a deeply emotional confession that stunned many of his long-time fans.
The legendary actor, known for decades of quiet strength and iconic performances, revealed the truth about the love that shaped his entire life. Behind the fame and legendary career was a personal story filled with devotion, regret, and lasting memories. And what he shared about the woman he loved most has left many people deeply moved.
In the late 1950s, long before he became one of Hollywood’s most admired leading men, Robert Redford was simply a young man searching for purpose. After studying painting and art in college and spending time traveling through Europe, Redford returned to the United States uncertain about what direction his life would take.
He had talent and curiosity, but little stability, and his future seemed far from the bright spotlight that would later define his career. It was during this uncertain period that he met historian and social activist Lola Van Wagenen, a woman whose presence would soon become deeply important in his life. Their relationship developed quickly and intensely.
Van Wagenen was intelligent, thoughtful, and deeply committed to social causes, qualities that impressed the young Redford. While he was still figuring out his professional ambitions, she brought a sense of calm and balance to his life. Their shared conversations about art, culture, and society helped shape Redford’s worldview, and their bond quickly grew into a serious romance.
By September 1958, the couple decided to take a bold step and marry in a simple ceremony in Las Vegas. At the time, Redford was far from famous. He had not yet achieved the success that would eventually make him a household name, and the early days of their marriage were filled with uncertainty and financial struggle.
But the union provided him with something he had lacked before, stability and emotional support. As Redford began pursuing acting seriously, the couple moved to New York City, where he started taking acting classes and auditioning for small parts. During this challenging period, Van Wagenen played a crucial role behind the scenes.
While Redford worked tirelessly to break into the competitive world of television and theater, she helped maintain a sense of order in their daily lives. Her encouragement gave him the confidence to continue pursuing acting even when opportunities were scarce. Redford soon began landing small roles on live television dramas and stage productions, slowly building the experience that would eventually launch his film career.
Though the world did not yet recognize his talent, the foundation of his future success was already forming during these early years. At the center of that foundation was his marriage to Van Wagenen, whose support helped him endure the struggles and uncertainty that come with chasing a dream. Only a short time after their wedding, Robert Redford and his wife Lola Van Wagenen began dreaming of a family together.
Their marriage was still new, and Redford was only beginning to pursue acting seriously, but both hoped to create a stable home despite the uncertainty that surrounded his early career. In 1959, their hopes seemed to come true when they welcomed their first child, a son named Scott Anthony Redford. The birth of their baby brought excitement and joy to the young couple.
Redford was still far from the Hollywood fame he would later achieve, working small television roles and studying acting while trying to support his growing family. Despite the challenges, the arrival of their son gave the couple a sense of purpose and optimism about the future. But that happiness was heartbreakingly short-lived.
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When Scott was only 2 months old, tragedy struck. The infant died suddenly from sudden infant death syndrome, a devastating and unexplained condition that claims the lives of seemingly healthy babies during sleep. For Redford and Van Wagenen, the loss was overwhelming. They had barely begun to experience parenthood before it was suddenly taken away.
The grief left a deep emotional scar on both parents. For Redford in particular, the tragedy became one of the most painful experiences of his life. At a time when he was still trying to find his place in the world, he now had to cope with the unimaginable loss of a child. Friends later noted that the experience quietly shaped his outlook on life, deepening his sensitivity and awareness of how fragile happiness could be.
Despite their heartbreak, the couple eventually found the strength to move forward. They remained committed to their marriage and to the idea of building the family they had once imagined. Just a year later in 1960, they welcomed a daughter, Shauna Redford, bringing new hope into their lives. Two years after that, their son David Redford was born in 1962, followed many years later by their youngest child, Amy Redford, in 1970.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the life of Robert Redford changed in ways few young actors could ever imagine. What had once been a difficult struggle to find small television roles suddenly transformed into a meteoric rise in Hollywood. By the late 1960s, Redford had become one of the most sought-after leading man in American cinema, especially after starring in the iconic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.
His charismatic performance alongside Paul Newman turned him into a global star almost overnight. A few years later, his success continued with the critically acclaimed film The Sting, 1973, which further cemented his reputation as one of Hollywood’s biggest box office draws. While this period brought extraordinary professional success, it also introduced new pressures that slowly began to strain his marriage to Lola Van Wagenen.
Fame required constant travel, long filming schedules, and endless promotional appearances. Redford often found himself working far from home for months at a time, moving between film sets, interviews, and international events. The sudden attention from the media and the public also meant that his personal life was now constantly under scrutiny.
For Van Wagenen, life changed dramatically as well. While Redford’s face appeared on movie posters and magazine covers around the world, she focused on maintaining stability at home. She devoted much of her time to raising their children and managing family life while also pursuing her own academic interests and social activism.
Though she had always been supportive of Redford’s ambitions, the demands of his career meant that the couple increasingly lived in separate worlds, one centered on Hollywood fame, the other on family and scholarship. As the years passed, the distance between them quietly grew. The pressures of celebrity, combined with the responsibilities of raising children and maintaining individual goals, made it difficult to preserve the closeness they once shared.
Their relationship, which had begun during Redford’s uncertain early years, was now facing challenges neither of them could have predicted when they married in the late 1950s. After nearly three decades together, the long marriage between Robert Redford and Lola Van Wagenen quietly came to an end in 1985. For many who had followed Redford’s career, the news of their divorce marked the closing of a deeply significant chapter in his life.
The couple had married in 1958, long before Redford became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors. Their relationship had survived the uncertainty of his early career, the devastating loss of their first child, and the enormous pressures that accompanied his rise to international fame. By the 1980s, however, the distance that had gradually grown between them over the years had become impossible to ignore.
Redford’s career had expanded far beyond acting. He had become a powerful figure in the film industry, directing movies, producing projects, and developing the independent film movement through his work with the Sundance Institute. His growing responsibilities meant constant travel, long hours on film sets, and increasing involvement in creative and business ventures.
While these achievements solidified his legacy in cinema, they also demanded much of his time and energy. Meanwhile, Van Wagenen had built a meaningful life of her own outside the Hollywood spotlight. A historian and dedicated activist, she pursued academic work and social causes that reflected her personal passions. Over time, their paths had simply evolved in different directions.
What once began as a close partnership during Redford’s uncertain early years had slowly transformed as their individual ambitions and lifestyles changed. When the divorce was finalized in 1985, it officially ended a 27-year marriage, an unusually long union by Hollywood standards at the time. Despite the emotional weight of the separation, the split was largely handled with dignity and mutual respect.
Neither Redford nor Van Wagenen engaged in the kind of public conflict that often accompanies celebrity divorces. Instead, both remained committed to maintaining stability within their family. More than a decade after the end of his first marriage, Robert Redford entered a quieter and more reflective period of his life.
By the late 1990s, he had already built an extraordinary legacy in Hollywood, not only as an actor, but also as a director, producer, and the driving force behind the independent film movement through the Sundance Institute. Yet away from the film industry, Redford was also seeking something more personal. A relationship that could grow far from the constant attention of fame.
It was during this time that he met German-born multimedia artist Sibylle Szaggars. Szaggars was known for her work combining visual art, environmental themes, and performance pieces that explored humanity’s connection to nature. Their meeting in the late 1990s quickly revealed how much they had in common. Both shared a deep appreciation for art, creativity, and the natural world, values that would soon become the foundation of their relationship.
Redford had long been passionate about environmental conservation and protecting the landscapes he loved, particularly in the American West. Szaggars, through her artistic work, also focused on ecological awareness and humanity’s responsibility toward the planet. Their conversations often revolved around these shared concerns, and their connection deepened through mutual respect for each other’s creative and philosophical perspectives.
Unlike Redford’s earlier years in Hollywood, when his rising fame placed intense pressure on his personal life, this relationship developed in a far more private environment. The couple spent much of their time away from the glare of the entertainment industry, particularly in the quiet natural surroundings of Utah, where Redford had long maintained a home and creative refuge near the Sundance area.
The peaceful setting allowed them to build their relationship at a slower, more meaningful pace. As the years passed, Szaggars gradually became Redford’s long-term partner and an important presence in his life. She often supported his environmental initiatives and artistic projects, while continuing to develop her own work as a respected multimedia artist.
Their partnership reflected a shared lifestyle centered on creativity, nature, and thoughtful living rather than the glamour and chaos of Hollywood celebrity. Then, Robert Redford and German multimedia artist Sibylle Szaggars decided to make their long-standing relationship official. In July 2009, the couple married in a small and intimate ceremony in Hamburg, the city where Szaggars had deep personal roots.
Unlike the glamorous celebrity weddings often associated with Hollywood figures, their ceremony was deliberately modest and private, attended mainly by close friends and family members. By the time of the wedding, Redford was already considered one of the most influential figures in American cinema. His career had spanned decades, including legendary performances in films such as Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and The Sting, as well as an acclaimed directing career highlighted by the Academy Award-winning
film Ordinary People. Beyond acting and directing, he had also become a champion of independent filmmaking through the work of the Sundance Institute, which he founded to support emerging storytellers and creative voices outside the traditional Hollywood system. For Redford, the marriage represented a new chapter later in life, one shaped less by career ambition and more by shared values and meaningful partnership.
His relationship with Szaggars had grown slowly and thoughtfully over the years, rooted in common interests that extended well beyond the film industry. Both were deeply passionate about environmental conservation, artistic expression, and the protection of natural landscapes, particularly in the American West, where Redford had long maintained a home near Sundance in Utah.
Szaggars was not only a partner in Redford’s personal life, but also someone who became increasingly involved in creative and environmental initiatives connected to his work. As a multimedia artist, she developed projects that blended visual art, music, and environmental awareness. Some of these collaborations intersected with Redford’s broader mission of promoting creativity and sustainability, including events and artistic programs associated with the Sundance community.
In 2018, the life of Robert Redford was shaken by one of the most painful tragedies a parent can face, the loss of a child. His son, filmmaker and environmental advocate James Redford, passed away after a long and courageous struggle with serious illness. For years, James had battled complications related to liver disease and cancer, enduring multiple medical challenges that deeply affected both his life and the lives of those who loved him.
James had faced health problems since childhood, including a serious liver condition that required a transplant when he was young. Despite these obstacles, he grew into an accomplished documentary filmmaker and passionate environmental activist, following many of the same values that had shaped his father’s life.
Through films and advocacy work, he focused on environmental protection, renewable energy, and public awareness about organ donation. His resilience and determination inspired many people who knew his story. In October 2018, however, his long health battle came to an end. The loss devastated the Redford family, and for Robert Redford, it was an especially profound emotional blow.
Though he had experienced tragedy earlier in life, including the loss of his infant son decades before, the death of James brought a new wave of grief that was deeply personal and difficult to bear. What do you think about Robert Redford’s love story? Leave us your comments in the section below. We hope you have found this helpful video.
