"I'd never in my life felt the love and the support and the thrill of having a guy like this," she says, of her late husband.
Losing a loved one is never easy, and for Lynda Carter, her life fell apart when she lost Robert Altman, her husband of 37 years. She's now trying to figure out how to go about her life without her beloved beside her. "The next part of my life is I want to learn who I am," says the 70-year-old star to PEOPLE. "It's totally frightening. I don't know who I am without Robert."
"It still gets me," she adds, dabbing her eyes between a few tears. "I just can't believe I've lost him."
To cope with the loss, she returned to her one true love—music. She's also honoring his memory with it, and on October 29, 2021, she's set to release a new song, Human and Divine, which she wrote in tribute of their nearly four-decade love affair. "It was a real romance," she says. "I was really trying to define love and loss and make sure it was about the human-ness of love."
Carter first met the power lawyer in 1982 at a dinner hosted by Maybelline. At the time Carter was the face of the cosmetic brand, while Altman was the attorney for the parent company. She was in the process of divorcing her first husband, Hollywood manager Ron Samuels, and wasn't expecting to form an instant connection with Altman, but you know what they say; when it's right, it's right.
"I was not prepared to meet anyone new," she says, adding with a laugh, "I was going to do it on my own."
The two got married and went on to have two beautiful children, and overall they were a happy family of four. But, having said that it's not like they didn't face issues during their marriage. "We'd been through ups and downs and ins and outs," says Carter, "and I'd never in my life felt the love and the support and the thrill of having a guy like this."
There were times when the two of them battled their own personal demons, but they never gave up on each other. She stood by him when he was accused of fraud in a headline-making 1992 bank scandal, and when Carter admitted to having an alcohol problem, she had Altman's complete support. Now 27 years sober, she says, "Robert supported me through admitting that. The only thing he wanted was for me to be healthy and happy and okay."
Sure, life's not going to be the same for Carter without Altman beside her, but that doesn't change the fact that the two of them have made some really great memories together; ones that she will be able to cherish her entire lifetime, even in the absence of her soulmate. And that, truly, is what love is all about!
References:
https://people.com/tv/wonder-woman-lynda-carter-reflects-losing-husband-37-years-robert-altman/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jonathan Leibson
