“The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine,” Channing wrote in an essay for ‘The Sunday Times’

NEED TO KNOW

• Stockard Channing is reflecting on her daily life, more than a decade after the death of her longtime partner, Daniel Gillham
• The actress moved from Maine to London alone before the pandemic, and said she is content living as a “recluse”
• “The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine,” Channing wrote in an essay for The Sunday Times

Stockard Channing is opening up about her life after love.

The Grease actress, 82, who is best known for playing the rebellious Rizzo, penned a candid essay for The Sunday Times, published Aug. 5, noting how her lifestyle today differs from when she was starring in The West Wing and Practical Magic following the death of her decades-long partner, Daniel Gillham.

“My partner, Daniel, died in 2014 and it was more devastating than I realised; it had a lag effect,” Channing wrote. “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 added, noting she made the move from New England to London alone, “just before Covid.”

She added that the move was also partially motivated by politics, noting that it “vaguely coincided with [Donald] Trump getting elected and the way politics has changed in the U.S.”

Channing was married four times — to Walter Channing Jr., Paul Schmidt, David Debin and David Rawle — and was single for two years before she was romantically linked to Gillham in 1990.

Channing admitted “children were thought about” over the course of her life, and she still sometimes finds herself thinking of what could have been “because it’d be great to have someone taking care of me,” she wrote.

“But hey, children can be just as selfish as everybody else out there,” she added.

The actress previously told The Sunday Times in January 2025 that she was uninterested in finding another partner.

“No, I think that would be such a pain in the ass. I’m consolidating, thank you very much,” she said. “I’m very happy with the friends I have. No. Life is good. Life is very good.”

In her essay for The Sunday Times, the actress noted that her dating history represented different “epochs” of her life, just as her roles in different films do. Young women know her from Practical Magic, while adults know her from The West Wing, she said — and “real grown-ups” know her from Grease.

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“I guess films are like songs: they take you back to a particular time in your life,” Channing wrote. “Maybe a more innocent time.”

Now, Channing is reprising her role in Practical Magic 2 as Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian’s (Nicole Kidman) Aunt Franny, alongside Dianne Wiest as Aunt Jet. She’ll also be directing a production of the Samuel Beckett play Krapp’s Last Tape later this year. After that? She might just retreat for a while.

“I’m not sure I’ll do anything after that,” Channing wrote. “Acting is like everything in life; you never know what’s going to happen.”

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