Natalie Wood's daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, was her late mother's twin in a new photo shared by her stepfather, Robert Wagner, in celebration of her 56th birthday.
Robert took to Instagram to share a sweet photo of himself beaming as he sat beside his stepdaughter, who rested her chin on his shoulder. Natasha looked just like Natalie with her brunette bob, brown eyes and delicate bone structure, and she appeared to have barely aged.
© Instagram"Please join me in wishing a very Happy Birthday to my wonderful daughter, Natasha," the legendary actor wrote in the caption. "Jill [St John, his wife] and I are so proud of the woman you are and the joy, laughter, and love you bring into our lives. We love you and wish you the happiest of birthdays."
"Love you Daddy," she commented underneath, pointing to their incredibly close bond that grew in the wake of Natalie's shocking death in 1981.
Natalie's tragic death
© Getty ImagesRobert and Natalie were married from 1957 to 1962, and while he welcomed a daughter, Katie, with his second wife, Marion Marshall, the actress welcomed Natasha with her second husband, Richard Gregson. Robert and Natalie then reunited and married in 1972, and welcomed their daughter Courtney together before the star passed away at age 43 in 1981.
The mystery surrounding Natalie's death remains to this day; she was on a yacht trip near Santa Catalina Island with Robert, her co-star Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern, when the incident occurred.
The group had reportedly been drinking heavily, and Robert and Natalie got into an argument before she stormed off. He then raised alarms after not being able to locate her in their bedroom later that night, and her body was found the next morning floating in the ocean.
Her official cause of death was drowning and other undetermined factors, and authorities theorized she had fallen off the boat and tried to pull herself into the dinghy before succumbing to the cold water.
Defending Robert
© Getty ImagesWhile Robert was cleared of any wrongdoing after the initial investigation, the star was named as a person of interest in 2018, but was cleared of involvement again in 2022.
Natasha shared her outrage over people's suspicions of her stepfather in her 2020 book More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood.
© Penske Media via Getty Images"No one in my world questioned my dad's love for my mom or his utter despair at her loss," she wrote. "We can never know with complete certainty how my mother ended up in the water."
"The things I do know: my father would never have harmed my mother or failed to save her if he knew she was in danger," she continued. "And I focus on my love for my mother, my dad, my family. My mother was not a tragic, doomed person. Her life was devoted to her art, her children, her husband and her heart."
Passing the torch
© Getty ImagesNatasha became a mother herself in 2012 when she welcomed her daughter, Clover, with her husband, Barry Watson. The 56-year-old has made it her mission to teach Clover about her grandmother and keep her memory alive.
"I really want Clover to feel a connection to her grandma, and I didn't know how I was going to do that when she was born, except that so many things from my mom's life and my life with my mom are in my home," she told People.
© Instagram"It did make sense that Clover would grow up around these things or around movies. There were lots of movies that she was able to watch as a child [from] when my mom was a child. And so, Clover's had a very Groundhog Day sort of childhood, very different from mine, very day in, day out."
She added: "I'm trying to walk that line where I respect her boundaries, but I also want her to understand that her grandma was somebody to be celebrated."
