Tom Stoppard's Wife, Sabrina, Is A Guinness Family Heiress: All About Late Director's Ex-Wives, Kids

Renowned filmmaker Tom Stoppard built a glittering career studded with towering achievements through his creative reshaping of modern theatre. One of the most celebrated playwrights of the era, Stoppard died on November 29, 2025, at his home in Dorset, U.K., at age 88. The Czech-English writer leaves behind not only an extraordinary artistic legacy but also a private life as compelling as the stories he created.

The Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love playwright’s death was confirmed by his agency, United Agents, who shared that Stoppard was surrounded by his family in his final moments. As the British theatre remembers his artistic legacy, the world can’t help but grow curious about the filmmaker’s life beyond the screen, one that has largely remained private yet eventful. Here’s all about his remarkable personal story.

Meet Tom Stoppard’s wife, Sabrina Guinness

Tom Stoppard shared his final chapter with Sabrina Guinness, his third wife and partner, who stayed by his side until the end. She is the heiress of the Guinness brewing dynasty, long regarded as one of Britain’s most influential families, which inspired the Netflix series House of Guinness. Her father, James Edward Alexander Rundell Guinness, was part of the Guinness banking line, which traces back to Sir Benjamin Guinness’s son, Henry Guinness.

A common face among England’s elites, Sabrina was once romantically linked to King Charles when he was still Prince Charles. Later, Stoppard also became a close friend of the king. On the professional front, Sabrina has worked as a producer on television projects such as Pass the Mic and Comes a Bright Day. Sabrina and Tom tied the knot in 2014 after knowing each other for two decades. The couple never had any kids.

Inside Tom Stoppard’s past marriages and children

Before Sabrina, Stoppard had been married twice, both long-term relationships. His first wife was Josie Ingle, whom he married in 1965 and divorced a decade later in 1972. That same year, he married Dr. Miriam Stoppard, with whom he stayed married for twenty years until 1992. Though married three times, each relationship played a profound role at different points in his life and career. Here’s a brief overview of Stoppard’s past marriages and his four children.

Tom Stoppard’s first wife, Josie Ingle

Tom Stoppard’s first marriage was to Josie Ingle, a nurse, in 1965, with whom he had two sons, Oliver and Barnaby. In 1972, the marriage ended in a messy divorce: at that time, Tom’s career was beginning to take off, and Josie’s alcoholism, paired with depression, didn’t make things any easier. It is reported that Stoppard had to put up quite a fight to gain custody of their two sons. There’s a popular speculation that Tom’s 1982 drama The Real Thing may be, to some extent, inspired by his marriage to Josie.

Tom Stoppard’s second wife, Miriam Stoppard, and the other woman

The very year he separated from Josie Ingle, Tom married Dr. Miriam Stoppard, a renowned physician who later became a broadcaster and advice columnist and the UK’s best-selling family expert behind books like Woman’s Body (1994) and Healthy Sex (1998). The couple had two sons, Ed and Will, and stayed married for twenty years.

In 1992, Tom and Miriam parted ways following a long period of professional burnout on both ends. The matter was complicated further by the director’s brewing romance with actress Felicity Kendal, which had begun the year before their split.

If reports are to be believed, Stoppard and Kendal remained romantically involved for much of the 1990s, but they rarely spoke publicly about their affair. Even after their breakup, the pair remained respectful and continued to admire each other’s work. Earlier this year, Tom and Felicity reunited professionally when the latter starred as ‘Eleanor Swan’ in Tom’s play Indian Ink.

What happened to Tom Stoppard’s children?

Despite their artistic heritage, each of Stoppard’s sons forged their own paths, far from their father’s world. Oliver, his eldest son, works as a postman, whereas his second-born, Barnaby, spent years behind the camera as a video technician and now runs a restaurant in London. Will Stoppard is known to manage the career of his violinist wife, Linzi Stoppard. In a 2012 interview with The Standard, Stoppard reflected on his sons and said:

"Life is stressful for Ed, with three small children, but Will works incredibly hard, and poor Barney, I think, works harder than any of my children. Oliver, my eldest, may be in a certain sense the successful one because he actually does live with much less stress than the other three."

Tom’s youngest son, Ed Stoppard, is the best-known of the four siblings. A theatre and film actor, Ed has appeared in numerous renowned projects, including The Crown, Knightfall, Golda, and Brideshead Revisited. Reflecting on Ed’s evolution as an actor, Tom proudly told The Standard in a 2012 interview:

"First of all, I'm very proud of him, because I didn't get him into the show, and he's very good in it. And I find it remarkably easy to forget that he's my Ed when I'm watching a rehearsal. I hardly ever experience that little stab of pleasure when I think, oh my goodness, it's Ed."

Remembering Tom Stoppard: the man whose personal life was as dramatic as his plays

Stoppard was one of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights in Britain, whose breakout play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), redefined modern theatre. Born Tomas Straussler to a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia in 1937, he fled the Nazis before he turned two. After losing his father in Japanese captivity, he arrived in England with his stepfather, an English army major, and adopted his surname, Stoppard.

Stoppard’s contributions earned him a knighthood in 1997, followed by an Oscar the next year for Shakespeare in Love. Over five decades, he collected multiple Tony Awards and cemented his place as one of modern theatre’s defining voices. His body of work includes landmark plays such as Night and Day, Travesties, The Real Thing, Jumpers, Arcadia, and Leopoldstadt, as well as screen projects, including the 1975 TV film Three Men in a Boat.

In film, Stoppard became a sought-after screenwriter. He co-wrote the 1985 dystopian classic Brazil with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown, earning the trio an Oscar nomination. He later wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun in 1987 and worked uncredited on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989.

Tom Stoppard reportedly died peacefully at his home on Saturday, November 29, 2025, in Dorset, England, at the age of 88. While the exact cause of his death was not released publicly, his talent agency released a statement confirming his demise on X (formerly Twitter). The statement reads:

“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family. He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit, and his profound love of the English language. It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him.”

Tom Stoppard’s life was shaped by talent, grit, and reinvention, and the stories he left behind reflect that same spirit.

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