MAGGIE SMITH - SMITH STILL GRIEVING HUSBAND

SMITH STILL GRIEVING HUSBAND

British acting veteran DAME MAGGIE SMITH is still suffering acute loneliness following the death of her second husband nine years ago (98). The 72-year-old is supported by two sons from her first marriage - actors CHRIS LARKIN and TOBY STEPHENS - but fears familial support is not enough to fill the gaping hole BEVERLEY CROSS' death from heart disease left. She says, "Everybody says it gets better, but I don't think it does. It gets different. "JANE BIRKIN's mother JUDY CAMPBELL once said an extraordinary thing to me when her husband died; that it was a strange feeling you were not number one with anybody. "I have many good friends but I tend to keep to myself anyway. It's odd, doing things and having no one to share them with." Smith and Cross were married for 23 years before his death, aged 66.