Elizabeth O’Rourke, the much younger former wife of actor Terence Stamp, has been photographed for the first time in nearly two decades in a small coastal hamlet on the New South Wales north coast as friends and family said she was grieving the film star’s death.
O’Rourke, 51, who met Stamp in Bondi in 1998 when she was a pharmacy trainee and he was 58, has kept a low public profile since the couple divorced in 2008. She now lives and works in the West Ballina area and runs a local pharmacy, according to media reports and property records. Stamp died on August 17 at age 87; his cause of death has not been released.
O’Rourke and Stamp married in London in 2003 despite a reported 35-year age gap. Their wedding was held at Westminster registry office in a small ceremony attended by two witnesses. The marriage ended five years later; public records and contemporaneous reports cited the divorce as involving Stamp’s “unreasonable behaviour.”
After the split, O’Rourke spent a period living in Maida Vale in London before returning to Australia. Property documents show she sold a five-acre farming property in Kinvara in 2024 and, with her sister, moved into a modest four-bedroom, two-storey home on the outskirts of Ballina last year. The home was linked to businesses registered in her name, including Lennox Head Organics and Organic Kitchen Garden, which no longer appear to be operating.
Family members described a quiet life for O’Rourke in the coastal community, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and lies roughly 30 minutes from Byron Bay, a town known for its celebrity residents and visitors. Her sister Philippa told reporters that O’Rourke was “upset” by Stamp’s death. When approached by media in the town, O’Rourke declined to comment and said, “No thank you.”
Stamp’s relationship with Australia was long-standing. He became widely known to Australian audiences for his role as Bernadette Bassenger in the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which was filmed in Sydney and in the Outback. He remained a prominent figure in film and theatre for decades.
In a 2013 interview, Stamp reflected on his marriage to O’Rourke and the difficulties that followed. “One of the things I’ve learned in life is that it’s very easy to make a lover from a friend but it’s very hard to make a friend from a lover,” he said, adding that he had been upset by the split. He told the interviewer he had tried marriage later in life but “couldn’t make a go of it,” and acknowledged that he and O’Rourke were not in regular contact.
O’Rourke first encountered Stamp while working at a Bondi pharmacy in 1998, when he stopped in at a local hotel and then later at her workplace. Friends and acquaintances at the time recounted concerns among O’Rourke’s family about the age difference and about Stamp’s then-reputation as a long-time romantic figure in celebrity circles. Reports from the period said Stamp had expressed a desire for marriage and children early in their relationship, a prospect that reportedly made O’Rourke and her parents uneasy.
O’Rourke’s family is reported to have substantial business interests in Australia, including ownership of a Greg Norman-designed golf course in Tamworth and other properties in Queensland. Despite that background, public records and local accounts portray O’Rourke’s current life as comparatively private and centered on family and work in the regional community.
Stamp’s death prompted tributes noting his long career. A family statement announcing his passing said he “leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come.”