Patrick Stewart On Taking Sleeping Pills After His First Divorce: 'It Was A Rough Time’

Veteran actor Patrick Stewart memoir ‘Making It So’ was released on October 3 and many anecdotes from his life have come to the forefront. What has piqued the interest of many of his fans is the struggle after the actor’s first divorce in 1989 with Sheila Falconer. In his memoir, the actor has discussed what happened when he decided to stop taking the drugs and how it impacted his general health. Not only that, but he also discussed how he was involuntarily reliant on the medications to get enough sleep at the time. The X-Men actor recalled that after his first divorce, he went through a “rough time.”

Patrick Stewart was working on Star Trek when he found himself “dependent on sleeping pills to get me the hours of restoration I needed to do my job properly,” as quoted from his memoir by Page Six. The actor narrated that he eventually decided on quitting the pills, but that did not lead to improved sleep quality. Instead, he woke up in the early morning and experienced “full-body feeling of panic, my legs sweating profusely, which had never happened before and hasn’t since.”

Reportedly, Patrick Stewart admitted that this phase was the most difficult for him since his children, especially his daughter, Sophie, were enraged at him for divorcing their mother. As per reports, the actor’s involvement with Jennifer Hetrick, who played Vash on Star Trek: The Next Generation led to the divorce.

Patrick Stewart was also facing some issues with his house in Los Angeles which, according to him, was becoming “problematic.” He reported unpleasant events such as hearing voices, smelling cooking food, and hearing footsteps on an empty stairway. Later on he rented a place to a couple with a child who also reported similar instances.

Meanwhile, in his memoir, the actor also shared a lot about his Star Trek co-star, Tom Hardy. Reportedly, Patrick introduced his co-star as “The actor who portrayed the movie’s villain, Shinzon, was an odd, solitary young man from London. His name was Tom Hardy”. He mentioned that Tom would prefer not to interact socially with anyone on the set. As per Patrick, Tom Hardy “Never said, Good morning, never said, Goodnight.” However, he added that Tom was not “hostile.”

Patrick Stewart was most recently seen in the superhero sequel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, co-starring Benedict Cumberbatch. He portrayed Charles Xavier, called Professor X, in the 2022 film.