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The drowning death of legendary beauty Natalie Wood has mystified loved ones, authorities and fans for more than three decades!
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Now, the star’s secret lover — a former FBI agent — breaks his 35-year silence, insisting that her demise “was no accident!” In an explosive interview, Donald Wilson says that lovely Natalie, just 43 on Nov. 29, 1981, when she disappeared from the boat she owned with husband Robert Wagner, lived in fear that one day her spouse “would kill her.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Wilson, now 77, claims he and Natalie began a torrid affair in 1973 — a year after she remarried Wagner. He says fate drew them together in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after Natalie fled California to hide from Wagner. “She told me her presence in Idaho was a spur-of-the-moment trip to distance herself from her husband,” Wilson says, adding that she admitted, “There were many times that he put her in fear for her life.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Though Natalie was pregnant at the time, Wilson said the two felt intense attraction — and soon acted upon it! “We were in love with each other,” he said. It’s understandable that Wilson would fall for the ravishing actress, who began her career at age 4, charming audiences in “Miracle on 34th Street.” She went on to teen fame opposite James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and came into her own — for her talent as well as her smoldering good looks — in “Splendor in the Grass” and “West Side Story.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
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As their undercover romance grew ever more passionate, Wilson asked Natalie why she was with Wagner, especially after leaving the union after the first four tumultuous years. “She told me, ‘I don’t know the answer. I certainly don’t know why I re-married him. It was the worst decision I ever made.’ ” Of course, in his prime, Wagner, now 87, was dashing, sexy and suave, but Wilson says Natalie confessed that the “Kiss Before Dying” star “had a violent temper and she never knew when he was going to go off.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Wilson further reveals that Natalie shared that her husband would “become volatile” if she did even the smallest thing that he objected to. According to Wilson, the pair remained illicit lovers until 1977 — four years before Natalie’s body was found floating off California’s Catalina Island, where Natalie, Wagner and her “Brainstorm” co-star Christopher Walken had moored the couple’s yacht, the "Splendour."
Photo credit: Getty Images
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The boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, says the husband and wife argued bitterly before she went missing in the middle of the night. He also has claimed Wagner delayed searching for her. Natalie’s death was initially deemed accidental, but after reopening the case the medical examiner’s office changed the cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Wagner has long denied any responsibility, but those who were close to Natalie are not so sure. In February 2016, her sister Lana Wood confronted Wagner at an event in Palm Springs, Calif., demanding to know, “Why won’t you speak to detectives?” Wagner reportedly became agitated and sputtered that Lana was accusing him of “murdering her” and stalked off. The incident was secretly videotaped and shown to criminal experts, who noted that Wagner’s words and body language indicated he was hiding something!
Photo credit: Getty Images
The drowning death of legendary beauty Natalie Wood has mystified loved ones, authorities and fans for more than three decades!
Photo credit: Getty Images
Now, the star’s secret lover — a former FBI agent — breaks his 35-year silence, insisting that her demise “was no accident!” In an explosive interview, Donald Wilson says that lovely Natalie, just 43 on Nov. 29, 1981, when she disappeared from the boat she owned with husband Robert Wagner, lived in fear that one day her spouse “would kill her.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Wilson, now 77, claims he and Natalie began a torrid affair in 1973 — a year after she remarried Wagner. He says fate drew them together in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after Natalie fled California to hide from Wagner. “She told me her presence in Idaho was a spur-of-the-moment trip to distance herself from her husband,” Wilson says, adding that she admitted, “There were many times that he put her in fear for her life.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Though Natalie was pregnant at the time, Wilson said the two felt intense attraction — and soon acted upon it! “We were in love with each other,” he said. It’s understandable that Wilson would fall for the ravishing actress, who began her career at age 4, charming audiences in “Miracle on 34th Street.” She went on to teen fame opposite James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and came into her own — for her talent as well as her smoldering good looks — in “Splendor in the Grass” and “West Side Story.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
As their undercover romance grew ever more passionate, Wilson asked Natalie why she was with Wagner, especially after leaving the union after the first four tumultuous years. “She told me, ‘I don’t know the answer. I certainly don’t know why I re-married him. It was the worst decision I ever made.’ ” Of course, in his prime, Wagner, now 87, was dashing, sexy and suave, but Wilson says Natalie confessed that the “Kiss Before Dying” star “had a violent temper and she never knew when he was going to go off.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Wilson further reveals that Natalie shared that her husband would “become volatile” if she did even the smallest thing that he objected to. According to Wilson, the pair remained illicit lovers until 1977 — four years before Natalie’s body was found floating off California’s Catalina Island, where Natalie, Wagner and her “Brainstorm” co-star Christopher Walken had moored the couple’s yacht, the "Splendour."
Photo credit: Getty Images
The boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, says the husband and wife argued bitterly before she went missing in the middle of the night. He also has claimed Wagner delayed searching for her. Natalie’s death was initially deemed accidental, but after reopening the case the medical examiner’s office changed the cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Wagner has long denied any responsibility, but those who were close to Natalie are not so sure. In February 2016, her sister Lana Wood confronted Wagner at an event in Palm Springs, Calif., demanding to know, “Why won’t you speak to detectives?” Wagner reportedly became agitated and sputtered that Lana was accusing him of “murdering her” and stalked off. The incident was secretly videotaped and shown to criminal experts, who noted that Wagner’s words and body language indicated he was hiding something!
Photo credit: Getty Images