Stockard Channing made a rare return to the red carpet amid her private life away from the spotlight.
Channing, 82, attended the European premiere of Practical Magic 2 at London’s Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on Wednesday, August 26, dressed in a chic navy suit. The actress posed on the red carpet with costars Dianne Wiest, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Joey King and Maisie Williams.
Channing and Wiest, 78, notably portrayed sister witches in 1998’s Practical Magic, who raised their orphaned nieces Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman). The group all reprised their roles in the upcoming and highly anticipated sequel, in which King, 27, and Williams, 29, play Sally’s teen daughters who have bewitching powers (and curses) of their own.
In the years preceding her Practical Magic return, Channing had primarily resigned from the spotlight.
“Since just before COVID I’ve been living in London. My partner, Daniel [Gillham], died in 2014 and it was more devastating than I realized; it had a lag effect,” the Grease star told The Sunday Times earlier this month. “The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine.”
She continued, “I’ve lived alone since I lost Daniel and I’m happy being a recluse. I was married four times before Daniel and they all represent epochs of me. Children were thought about, and, yeah, I think about them now because it’d be great to have someone taking care of me. But, hey, children can be just as selfish as everybody else out there.”
Channing and cinematographer Gillham were together from 1990 until his death in 2014. (She was previously married to Walter Channing Jr. from 1963 to 1967, to Paul Schmidt from 1970 to 1976, to David Debin from 1976 to 1980 and to David Rawle from 1980 to 1988.)
Following Gillham’s death, Channing has preferred a simple life in London.
“If I’m leaving the apartment, I comb my hair, but I don’t have a wardrobe of designer outfits,” she told the British outlet. “Well, I do, but they’re all from the ’80s and ’90s. Do I care how I look? Most actors do — although part of your job is not being self-conscious. But I’ve never considered myself as beautiful. And I’m not a celebrity ‘tart.’ I’m just me, take it or leave it.”
She added at the time, “Pottering is my meditation; moving things from that pile to that pile. I may read and fall asleep around 11. If I can’t sleep, it’s probably just my subconscious clearing out stuff. Do I ever feel anxious? Sure, but that’s the price you pay for getting rid of the garbage.”
