Shatner’s saddest memory

It’s a memory William Shatner says will haunt him for the rest of his life, says Olga Craig in the London Telegraph. On the night of Aug. 9, 1999, Shatner returned to his Los Angeles home to find his third wife, Nerine Kidd, drowned in the couple’s swimming pool. “I remember every second,” the 77-year-old actor says slowly. “I had enough breath for one deep dive. One of her arms was floating above her and I grabbed her by that arm and lifted her, pulling her towards the shallow end. I laid her by the pool. Her skin was blue.” Almost immediately, rumors began swirling that Kidd was the victim of foul play. “Can you imagine what that was like?” Shatner asks. “After the O.J. Simpson debacle, I suppose I should have known that was going to happen. The media was asking, ‘Did Shatner kill his wife?’” The truth was that Kidd was a hopeless alcoholic, and medical examiners found that her body contained massive levels of alcohol and Valium. The death eventually was ruled to be accidental. Shatner says he wasn’t surprised Kidd’s life ended badly; once, while driving under the influence, she nearly killed herself and one of Shatner’s daughters. “I married Nerine against the advice of my family and friends. Against my own good sense,” he says. “But I absolutely worshipped her and I had thought, stupidly, that I could heal her. I devoted myself to her until the day she died. But alcoholism had Nerine by the throat.”

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