Inside Maggie Smith's romance with Beverley Cross: Late actress said she never got over her husband's death - after couple married 23 years following their first meeting

Maggie Smith has passed away aged 89 years old today - 26 years after the death of her husband Beverley Cross, who she continued to grieve and speak fondly about years on.

The late actress first met the playwright when she was 18, saying that he was 'lovely' and, at 21, 'a bit older'.

He had asked her to marry him and wait while his divorce went through - but in 1967, she had married actor Robert Stephens, with whom Maggie had two sons.

It was 23 years after their first meeting that the Harry Potter star and Beverley finally tied the knot.

They were happy together until 1998, when the screenwriter passed away aged 66.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2004, Maggie - who had dreamt of him the night before - said: 'I still miss him so much it's ridiculous. People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.

'Even in my dream I kept saying to him, "You are dead. You can't be here."'

Maggie told the outlet that her and Beverley's first meeting took place on the steps of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

At the time, she was playing Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse.

The actress had also joked that it was 'entirely Bev's fault' that she ended up meeting her first husband, Robert, because he had 'made her go to the National Theatre when she had already said no'.

Maggie and Robert wed in 1967, and within two years had two sons - Christopher, 57, and Toby, 55. 

The Oscar-winning actress  died in hospital this morning aged 89 after an incredible 70-year acting career.

Her death has sparked an outpouring of grief from fellow thespians and Harry Potter fans around the world, with Huge Bonneville leading tributes to a 'true legend of her generation'.

The beloved star was best known as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter blockbuster franchise and as Violet Crawley in TV series Downton Abbey.

Her heartbroken sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, announced 'with great sadness' her death in an emotional statement this afternoon.

They paid tribute to their 'extraordinary' mother, an 'intensely private person' who was 'with friends and family at the end'.

Born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934, she was an internationally recognised actress for much of her life after playing the fanatical teacher Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. 

Dame Maggie also won over Harry Potter fans later in life, when she appeared in the film series as the quick-witted, kind and formidable Professor McGonagall.

And in 2010 she was central to the success of ITV series Downton Abbey, in her Emmy-award winning role as the acerbic Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, which she continued to play in the films.

Her career of more than half a century brought her recognition almost from the beginning, and she received an early Bafta nod for promising newcomer in 1959 for the crime film Nowhere To Go.

This was followed by Bafta nominations for Young Cassidy in 1966, Death On The Nile in 1979, California Suite in 1980, Quartet in 1982, The Secret Garden in 1994, Tea With Mussolini in 2000, Gosford Park in 2002, and The Lady In The Van in 2016.

She also won best actress gongs for The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, A Private Function and The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne.

Her final roles included The Miracle Club, which follows a group of women from Dublin who go on a pilgrimage to the French town of Lourdes, and 2022's Downton Abbey: A New Era, in which Violet dies. 

Larkin and Stephens, her sons from her first marriage, said in their statement: 'It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.

'An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. 

'We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.

'We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.'

Among the first to pay tribute was her friend Gyles Brandreth , who said: 'The saddest news: the death of Dame Maggie Smith marks the end of a golden era and a quite extraordinary life.

'She was a truly great actress, 'one of the greats' and simply the best company: wise, witty, waspish, wonderful. One of a kind in every way and consequently irreplaceable.'

Dame Maggie was one of the most versatile, accomplished and meticulous actresses of her generation, her repertoire ranging from Shakespeare to character parts in Harry Potter. 

She was a performer of contrasts, with an astonishing capacity to switch imperceptibly from radiance to melancholy, from quiet to boisterous, from graciousness to mischief within seconds.

Although she was a tour de force in leading roles on the West End stage, she was equally happy - even during the years of her mega-stardom - to accept supporting roles, particularly in films.

Truly professional and as near a perfectionist as she could be, she treated these roles with as much detailed and careful attention as she did her major parts.

Probably her greatest triumph was in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, for which she won her first Oscar.

But, Dame Maggie - she was made a DBE in 1990 - was self-deprecating about her abilities.

Her family background gave no indication that she would not only enter the acting profession but also become one of its leading exponents.

She said she had wanted, from childhood, to become an actress, but she did not see a play or a film until she was a teenager.

Nor did she receive much encouragement from her family, particularly one of her grandmothers, who remarked that she could not go into acting 'with a face like that'. But none of this deterred her from her ambition.

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934. She was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and later the Oxford Playhouse School, and first appeared on the stage as a girl of 18 in Twelfth Night.

She made an early mark in revues, as a singer and dancer. One fan who saw her on Broadway in New Faces of '56, said he laughed so much he ended up banging his head on the seat in front of him.

She was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who saw her as much more than just a vaudeville performer and invited her to join the newly-formed Royal National Theatre Company in London.

There, and at the Old Vic, she excelled in both tragedy and comedy, moving easily from Shakespeare to Noel Coward, to Restoration comedy to Ibsen.

As a 'rep' actress, she was able to develop her incredible range, skill and talent among some of Britain's best actors, including Robert Stephens, who was to become her first husband. They married in 1967 but divorced in 1974.

The film industry began to recognise her abilities and she was given several supporting roles.

But she first emerged as an international star with her virtuoso performance as the fanatical teacher Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. 

Even in smaller roles she could upstage the film 'giants'. In one film, Richard Burton described her scene-stealing as 'grand larceny'.

Dame Maggie won over a whole new generation of fans when she played Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.

In 2010 she was central to the success of ITV series Downton Abbey, in her Emmy-award winning role as the acerbic Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

But she later told ES Magazine: 'I am deeply grateful for the work in (Harry) Potter and indeed Downton (Abbey) but it wasn't what you'd call satisfying.

'I didn't really feel I was acting in those things.'

Her numerous awards also covered her performances in Tea With Mussolini, A Room With A View, A Private Function and The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne.

Dame Maggie won a best actress Oscar for the role in 1970.

Other film roles include her portrayal of a drunken Oscar loser in California Suite, the dying older lover in Love, Pain And The Whole Damn Thing, the tragic lodger in The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, and the so-called 'funny old bat' in Gosford Park, which brought her a sixth Oscar nomination.

She starred alongside Dame Judi Dench in the 2004 film Ladies In Lavender, and on stage in the David Hare play The Breath Of Life.

One of her most famous roles was as a bag lady in The Lady In The Van, the 2015 adaptation of Alan Bennett's memoirs.

She recently starred in the 2022's Downton Abbey: A New Era, where Violet's health deteriorates and she dies in an emotional end to her character.

The next year, she appeared in The Miracle Club, which follows a group of women from Dublin who go on a pilgrimage to the French town of Lourdes.