Laura Linney's Wedding to Man She 'Fell Very Hard For' Was 'A Celebration of Love and Loss' Due to Pal's Death

Award-winning actress Laura Linney knew she had a calling for acting when she was only a toddler and had great support from her family. However, Linney's parents divorced when she was only six months old.

As a tot, actress Laura Linney believed that she belonged on the stage as a performer. Born to retired nurse Ann Perse and playwright Romulus Linney, who divorced when she was six months old, the "Ozark" star created imaginary friends.

Linney revealed to People in June 1995 that when she was at school, she always tried to persuade her teachers to allow her to act out a book instead of writing.

"At school, I was always trying to con my teachers into letting me act out book reports instead of writing them," she said. At age 12, Linney convinced her father to get her an unofficial job as a stagehand at a small New Hampshire summer theater. She recalled:

"I remember crawling up the sound booth during a show, and an audience member stopped me and said, 'Little girl, I don't think you belong up there.' I kind of smiled and said, 'Yeah, I think I do.'"

The New York native suffered severe stage fright for over a year during her road to stardom. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in theater in 1986, Linney attended Julliard, where she developed stage fright so terrible that she "couldn't walk and talk at the same time."

The Hollywood starlet felt that she was in over her head regarding the performing arts and wondered whether she should pursue another path.

However, with the help of her then-boyfriend, fellow Julliard alumni, actor David Adkins, Linney overcame her insecurity and made her off-Broadway and Broadway debuts in "Six Degrees of Separation" in 1990.

Growing up, Linney looked up to her father, a prolific playwright who won two National Critics awards but who shared his daughter was always dismal of his career.

"Being a writer is not a comfortable thing to be, and I watched my father struggle. He was artistically successful, but never commercially, and it was not always easy for him," said Linney.

She added he was not an easy individual to deal with, stating though her dad was glorious, he was also a difficult person to be around.

Meanwhile, her mother worked extremely hard to provide for the family. "She worked really hard to make sure that I would have a good, solid life," Linney said of her mom. Be that as it may, because it takes a village to raise a child, relatives chipped in for her to attend elite schools.

Following her parents' divorce, Linney's father went on to remarry several times while she and her mother, who worked long hours as a cancer nurse at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, lived in a one-bedroomed apartment and slept on a pull-out in the living room.

LINNEY'S FIRST MARRIAGE WITH DAVID ADKINS

Linney has been married twice. Her first marriage was with Adkins, whom she wed in 1995. She told People that her then-fiance was "just as complex as I am."

As a couple, the pair had busy schedules and ensured to visit each other at least once every three weeks when away on separate projects. Adkins revealed even if it meant getting on a plane, then it was what they were willing to do.

However, as busy Hollywood stars, Linney and Adkins' marriage did not work out because of their heavy work schedules. They split in 1999 and officially divorced in 2000 after five years of matrimony.

The two-time Golden Globe Award winner moved into a one-bedroomed Manhattan apartment on the Upper West Side. Touching on her breakup from Adkins, she said:

"It wasn't because we didn’t love each other and it wasn’t because we didn’t try."

FINDING LOVE FOR THE SECOND TIME WITH MARC SCHAUER

After the divorce, Linney had a hard time being single and found her life unsatisfying despite having a thriving career. Armistead Maupin, an author, was her date for the Oscars when she was nominated for "You Can Count on Me," serving as her comforter.

Maupin, who is openly gay, recounted when he and Linney rode in the 2003 gay-pride parade in San Francisco, they smiled and waved to the crowd:

"Under her breath, Laura was singing, 'We're two lonely people in a car. We're two lonely people wondering where our boyfriends are. We're two lonely people in a car."

The "The Truman Show" star later found love again when she met her second husband, Marc Schauer. When she crossed paths with him when he worked as a host at the 2004 film festival in Colorado, she was in disbelief of her feelings for him:

"I remember looking at him at one point and going, 'Am I attracted to this man? Am I attracted to my handler? What is going on?'"

Linney said she was out of character and described herself as a shy person when it comes to romance, "It was a big surprise: 'Oh, I'm feeling something. That's nice." She admitted it was a good feeling, saying something awakened.

After their encounter, Linney and Schauer communicated via email, and soon after, he asked what was happening between them and if they should act on their feelings.

Linney told him she did not want to let go of anything happening between them, adding they needed to find a way to spend time together. At the time, the singer was on a promotional tour for "Kinsey," and he asked what her next stop would be.

Linney gave him the rundown of the cities, and he told her they would meet in Chicago. Even though she agreed, the "The Big C" star still could not believe it because she barely knew him. "But I had nothing to lose at that point," said Linney.

When they met up in Chicago, she was nervous as she rode in an elevator from her room at the Four Seasons to the lobby. When Linney got out, she turned and caught a glimpse of Schauer. Suddenly, all her nerves vanished.

The couple got engaged in August 2007. People reported that at the time, Linney's rep revealed to E! Online that the couple seemed delighted:

"They are very happy."

Linney's spouse is a real estate agent from Telluride, Colorado. While she lives in the spotlight, Schauer leads a private life, so not much is known about him. However, he supposedly attended school in New York and skipped out on college to pursue a career in real estate.

The couple tied the knot in an outdoor ceremony in May 2009. On their wedding day, movie star Liam Neeson walked the bride down the aisle. Maupin was also a guest, and he revealed to the New York Times:

"It was an astonishing moment, a celebration of love and loss, being given equal treatment."

LINNEY CONSIDERED POSTPONING HER WEDDING WITH SCHAUER

Despite their magical wedding, Linney considered postponing their ceremony months prior but later decided to go through with it.

Moreover, on-screen, she also wed Neeson in "Kinsey," who played Alfred Kinsey, a sexologist. Two years before her real-life wedding to Schauer, the actors co-starred as John and Elizabeth Proctor in Broadway's "The Crucible," which earned them both Tony Awards nominations.

In addition, Linney also wed her co-star Gabriel Byrne in the 1994 film "A Simple Twist of Fate." The pair were a couple again in 2004 in "PS." Furthermore, they were paired together in 2006 in the Australian drama "Jindabyne."

Linney, who co-starred alongside Neeson in "The Other Man," told Irishtimes.com in January 2008: "I've had much better marriages with Liam than I've had with Gabriel. Gabriel and I have had three very troubled marriages."

"

" star added he was an angel to her while noting she did her first movie with him. Byrne had known her for much of her professional life. Linney

he knew her well enough, including Neeson:

"I love those Irishmen. They've been very good to me."

Two months before Linney married Schauer, Neeson lost his beloved wife, Natasha Richardson, who happened to be her dear friend. Sadly, when tragedy struck, Linney considered postponing her wedding.

She was so taken aback by what happened to Richardson that she sent a message asking her not to die. The British native had a ski accident, and she succumbed to the injuries. Neeson and Richardson spent much of their time in Connecticut, where Linney also has a home.

Though Richardson's passing saddened her, Linney defended her choice to continue with her wedding months after despite having thoughts of postponing it, saying the deceased had looked forward to the ceremony.

"She would have been there. Of all my friends, she was the one who was most annoyed that we were taking so long. She was so happy when we got engaged, and she kept saying, 'When is this wedding happening,'" Linney explained, adding they talked a lot on the phone about the planning.

LINNEY BECAME A MOTHER AT AGE 49

Moreover, Linney experienced motherhood at a later stage in her life. In July 2017, the four-time Emmy Award winner said she would not recommend having kids late in life:

"I'm certainly not an advocate for having children later, but for me, it's been wonderful, and I'm deeply grateful. People would say to me, 'Your life's going to change.' Good! I want my life to change."

Linney welcomed her only child, son Bennett, with Schauer at age 49 after many years of trying. The mother of one kept her pregnancy a secret, saying it was not intentional. Not many people knew that she was pregnant, said Raha Lewis, a writer for People Magazine.

During her appearance on "Live with Kelly," the director expressed she was an older mom-to-be, and it took a while for her to become a parent.

"I wanted to make sure that my child actually arrived and was safe and healthy," said Linney. Bennett was born in 2014, and she began changing in ways she never imagined.

In her first year of being a mother, Linney realized there were muscles in her face that she had not used before. When she looked at her son, "I was in a way I never had before. My face was sore all the time," said Linney.

In 2020, the Academy Award nominee shared that motherhood made her happy and that transitioning back to work was easy on her part. Though she had just had her son, he was there with her when she did two films in London.

Linney said it was heart-warming to witness her child's language come together. "He'll go up to you and say,' Are you happy?' That's his big question. He asks everybody, 'Are you happy?' And it does sort of take your breath away," said the five-time Tony Award nominee.