- Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most famous composers of Broadway musicals
- The musician’s works include ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
- The British icon has been married three times and welcomed five children
Andrew Lloyd Webber suffered a tragic loss when his eldest son Nicholas died following a battle with stomach cancer at the age of 43. “I am shattered to have to announce that my beloved elder son Nick died a few hours ago in Basingstoke Hospital,” Andrew said to People on March 25, 2023. “His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft,” the legendary composer added. “Thank you for all your thoughts during this difficult time.”
Nicolas was Andrew’s second child from his first marriage to Sarah Hugill. The Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat composer, born in Britain in 1948, would go on to marry two more times and welcome five children altogether. Let’s meet Sarah and the two other women that walked down the aisle with Andrew, below.
Sarah Hugill
Not much is publicly known about Sarah’s relationship with Andrew unfortunately. The pair exchanged their wedding vows on July 24, 1971 and welcomed their first child together, daughter Imogen, on March 31, 1977. Their son Nicholas arrived on July 2, 1979, followed in his father’s footsteps, and was a Grammy nominated composer and record producer before his untimely death. Andrew and Sarah would go on to divorce in 1983, after 12 years of marriage.
Sarah Brightman
Andrew began working with Sarah Brightman, a British pop star who is 13 years his junior, when she auditioned for Cats in 1981, according to his 2018 memoir Unmasked, per People. “A private meeting was arranged at my London flat,” Andrew wrote, adding, “I thought she had a nice voice and that was about it. It was a full two years before I clocked how good a singer she was.”
At the time, both Andrew and Sarah were married, yet love soon blossomed between the pair, as they were inseparable professionally once she became the lead actress in his megahit Phantom of the Opera. An affair began in 1983, according to Andrew, which led to a proposal. “Well, in truth it wasn’t so much a proposal as a ‘we’re in love, we’re both married, what the f— do we do about it?'” he wrote in the memoir, per People. “We decided that Sarah would meet my mother, I would meet her parents and if we survived that test I would break the news to my first Sarah.”
Andrew and Sarah would marry in 1984 and divorce six years later. They did not have any children together.
Madeleine Gurdon
The end of Andrew’s relationship with Sarah didn’t come without complications. The famous musician had started another affair while still married to the muse. “I met Madeleine Gurdon in 1989 through mutual friends when my marriage to Sarah Brightman had got rocky,” he wrote in Unmasked, per People. “There had been publicity about Sarah’s affair with the original Phantom keyboard player, and hugely fond of her as I still am, things weren’t the same for me after that.”
At the time of Andrew and Madeliene’s meeting, she was described as a “top-notch equestrian who rides in Princess Anne’s set,” according to People. The report added, “The convent-educated daughter of a retired brigadier, she has been a high-profile three-day event rider for almost a decade.”
The pair would go on to marry on February 9, 1991 and add three more children to Andrew’s brood: Alastair, William and Isabella. They have been inseparable since, with Madeleine being by Andrew’s side when he overcame his harrowing battle with prostate cancer in 2010.