Natasha Gregson Wagner was 11 years old and staying at a friend’s house for a sleepover when she heard on the radio that her mother, actress Natalie Wood, was dead.
Gregson Wagner, now 56, wrote about the moment on the website for her fragrance brand, L’Amour Mere, describing how she clung to memories of her mother’s scent afterward. “As a child, I always knew my mom was home because her Jungle Gardenia scent arrived before she did,” she wrote. “After she died, I spent hours lying in her bed or sitting in her closet among her clothes. If I could somehow keep her fragrance alive, perhaps she would not be entirely gone.”
In the aftermath, Gregson Wagner said her biological father, British film producer Richard Gregson, and her stepfather, actor Robert Wagner, put her well-being first. “Luckily, I had these two men, Daddy Gregson and Daddy Wagner, who came together and rose to the occasion and completely put me first,” she told the Daily Mail. “They got me into therapy right away, and I had that same amazing therapist here in Beverly Hills until my 20s.”
Wood, a three-time Oscar nominee known for “West Side Story” and “Rebel Without a Cause,” died over Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 while aboard the family’s yacht with Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and captain Dennis Davern. Her body was found in the water off Catalina Island in Southern California. She was 43.
Investigators initially ruled the death an accidental drowning but reopened the case in 2011 after the yacht’s captain said he heard the couple arguing the night Wood disappeared, according to The Associated Press. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office amended her death certificate in 2012 to list the cause as “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators named Wagner a “person of interest” in 2018, but by 2022 the department said it had exhausted all leads and no longer considered him one. Wagner has consistently denied any involvement in Wood’s death.
Gregson Wagner said her two father figures worked to give her as ordinary a childhood as possible, away from media attention. “I had to do my laundry,” she told the Daily Mail. “We had dinner on the table at six o’clock. I learned how to cook in their kitchen. I learned how to do laundry. I learned how to take a bath with a hot tap and a cold tap, putting it in a pot and pouring it on my head and all these things.”
She also said she avoided the substance problems that have affected some children of famous parents. “I’ve definitely felt pressure in my life,” she said. “I know what’s right, I know what’s wrong. I’m not saying I haven’t had very, very painful things in my life. … But in the home, it was all very safe and secure and warm. So, I got lucky in that way.”
Still feeling the loss
Gregson Wagner said she still feels the impact of losing her mother, recalling how strangers would occasionally stop her because of her resemblance to Wood. “When I was younger, I would get stopped on the street by people who would say things like: ‘You look so much like this actress, you’ve probably never heard of her, but her name was Natalie Wood,'” she said. “Most of the time I wouldn’t admit I was her daughter, and just say: ‘Oh, I hear that a lot!'”
“We looked so much alike and had so much in common. Where did the mother end and the child begin? We were so completely connected — and she was so sharp and perceptive — that I sometimes believed she could see right into my mind,” she said.
Gregson Wagner has been married to “7th Heaven” actor Barry Watson, 52, since 2014, and the couple share a daughter, Clover. She launched the fragrance brand L’Amour Mere, which she has said was inspired by her mother and the connection they shared through scent.
In 2020, Gregson Wagner appeared alongside Robert Wagner, now 96, in the HBO documentary “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind,” which included interviews with Wood’s family, friends and confidants. Wagner, who married Wood in 1957, divorced her in 1962, remarried her in 1972 and remained with her until her death, helped raise Gregson Wagner. He and Wood also had a daughter, Courtney Wagner, who appeared in the documentary as well.
Of her stepfather’s participation in the film, Gregson Wagner told Fox News Digital at the time: “I am always blown away by his courage. As my dad and knowing him for basically my whole life, I know him to be such a courageous person. I was just so proud of him. I felt like he was so transparent, elegant, gracious, emotional, connected and present. He was everything that I know him to be, so it felt like an incredible experience to bear witness as his daughter. He’s one of the great loves of my life. He moves me every day, and he deeply moved me on those days [of filming] for sure.”
Gregson Wagner also recalled warm memories of her mother’s parenting. “My mom made being a mom feel really effortless,” she said. “She loved it so much. She was always singing songs with us. We were always painting and reading. She was always there to talk to. I hear her voice a lot when I talk to [my daughter] Clover. Like, ‘What are we going to do today? Are we going to take a walk?’ Just the little mundane things. I can hear her voice in my ear when I talk to my own daughter.”
“My parents wanted their children to have that constant feeling of being loved and nurtured — the joy of childhood,” she continued. “And that’s what they did. Friends came over all the time and sometimes they went out. But the focus was really on us. I think we felt really safe in their world and around them. They were able to create just a bustling, joyful, jubilant kind of atmosphere for us to grow up.”
Reflecting on the documentary, Gregson Wagner said she hoped it painted a fuller picture of her mother’s life. “I hope that audiences will get a very clear picture of this woman who was so strong, funny, joyful, empowered and courageous,” she said. “She had a great life. It wasn’t a long one, but it was the one she wanted to have. She was the architect of her own life.”
