Dame Maggie Smith’s son details final moments with his beloved mother before her death
The beloved actress died in 2024.
Dame Maggie Smith’s son Toby Stephens has revealed what happened during the heartbreaking moments before his mum’s death.
The esteemed and beloved actress, whose career on the stage and screen spanned an incredible eight decades, died in September 2024 aged 89.
Her Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint shared loving statements, with Daniel calling her a ‘legend’ of the big screen.
King Charles and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also paid tribute to Dame Maggie, with the Labour leader describing the actress as a ‘national treasure’.
Her actor son Toby, 55, has now revealed that he was unable to make it to the hospital on time to be with his mum, having been away filming after she told him to go.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: ‘She was in hospital. She was supposed to be coming out, but the last two years of her life had been a decline.
Dame Maggie told Stephen to keep working while she was ill (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)‘She would get worse, then she would get better, then she would get worse [again]. So I said, “Look I’ve got this film”, and before I could even ask her, she said, “Go do it. God, you don’t want to hang round here, I’m fine.”‘
Dame Maggie died just a day before Toby finished filming Marmara, an upcoming New Zealand gothic horror movie set in mid-19th century England.
It meant that, sadly, Toby was unable to be by her side – thankfully, Dame Maggie’s oldest son Chris Larkin was able to be with her at the time of her death.
Dame Maggie’s incredible career spanned eight decades (Picture: EPA) Toby followed in his mum’s footsteps and became an actor (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)As much as he wanted to be there with his mum at that time, he also confessed to being upset that he wasn’t there to support his brother.
‘I was so sad not to be with him, I found that very difficult. But she was no longer aware – and it allowed me some space to actually get my head round what had happened.’
Toby is the son of Dame Maggie and her first husband Robert Stephens, who made his name as an actor in the early years of the British Royal National Theatre.
The two were married between 1967 and 1975 – Stephens, who died in 1995, had already married twice and married once more after he and Dame Maggie divorced.
Toby (right) expressed regret at not being there for his brother Chris Larkin (right) when Dame Maggie died (Picture: Dove/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Dame Maggie married once more after her divorce from Stephens, tying the knot with Alan Beverly Cross in 1975 before his death in 1998 at the age of 66.
Toby’s began his film career in 1992, starring as Othello in director Sally Potter’s adaptation of Orlando, the novel published by Virginia Woolf in 1928.
Just 10 years later in 2002, Toby was cast as lead villain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day, which proved to be Pierce Brosnan’s last ever as 007.
Elsewhere, he starred in the Michael Bay film 13 Hours and the Clint Eastwood action thriller Space Cowboys, as well as spending many years in the theatre.
On TV, he spent four years on the American historical drama Black Sails between 2014 and 2017, before appearing as Lionel in the final episode of Netflix’s series One Day.
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