Hollywood history is messy. Usually, when we talk about the great screen legend Merle Oberon, the conversation turns to her role as Cathy in Wuthering Heights or the massive secret she kept about her heritage until the day she died. But the real emotional climax of her life didn't happen on a soundstage in the 1930s. It happened in 1973 on the set of a mostly forgotten, critically panned movie called Interval. That is where Robert Wolders and Merle Oberon met, and honestly, it changed everything for both of them.
You’ve probably heard the name Robert Wolders in relation to Audrey Hepburn. He was her long-term companion for the final thirteen years of her life. But before he was "Audrey’s Rob," he was Merle’s husband.
The story is kinda wild. Merle was 62. Robert was 36. At the time, she was still married to Bruno Pagliai, a wealthy Italian industrialist. They lived in a sprawling, gorgeous house in Acapulco. On paper, it was the perfect life. In reality? The marriage was basically over. When she cast the handsome Dutch actor Robert Wolders as her leading man in Interval, she wasn't just looking for a co-star. She found a soulmate.
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The Scandalous Start of Robert Wolders and Merle Oberon
People love to gossip about age gaps now, so you can imagine the chatter in the early 70s. A 25-year difference was a big deal. Merle was an old-school Hollywood deity, one of the last of the "contract players" who lived a life of extreme curated elegance. Wolders was a handsome TV actor, known mostly for the western series Laredo.
They fell in love almost instantly.
Merle didn't waste time. She divorced Pagliai in 1973, the same year the movie came out. By 1975, she and Wolders were married. They moved to a beach house in Malibu, trading the high-society glitz of Mexico for a quieter, more private life.
It wasn't just a fling. Wolders actually walked away from his acting career to be with her. After 1975, he pretty much stopped taking roles. He became her protector, her confidant, and the one person who helped her navigate the intense anxiety she felt about her past.
Protecting the Secret
Merle Oberon was terrified. She had spent her entire career telling the world she was born in Tasmania. She claimed her birth records were destroyed in a fire. In reality, she was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) and was of South Asian and Maori descent. She spent her life "passing" as white, using heavy makeup and lighting to mask her heritage.
Robert Wolders was the one who was there when the cracks started to show.
There’s this famous, heart-wrenching story from 1978. Wolders wanted to see where his wife grew up, so they traveled to Hobart, Tasmania. The local press went into a frenzy. They were ready to throw a huge homecoming reception for their "hometown hero." Merle was trapped. At a public function in her honor, the pressure became too much. She couldn't keep the lie going under that kind of scrutiny. She finally admitted she wasn't born there and then literally collapsed.
Wolders was the one who picked her up. He shielded her from the cameras. He was the buffer between a woman losing her grip on a lifelong deception and a public that wanted to devour her.
The Quiet End in Malibu
Their marriage only lasted about four years, but it was incredibly intense. They lived a very secluded life in Malibu. Merle’s health started to decline in the late 70s. She suffered a massive stroke in 1979.
She died in Robert’s arms at the age of 68.
He was devastated. Truly. When he met Audrey Hepburn a year later at a dinner party, he was still very much in mourning. In fact, that shared sense of loss is what initially bonded him and Audrey. She had been through two messy, unhappy marriages; he had just lost the woman he gave up his career for.
Why the Relationship Still Matters
Most people overlook Wolders. They see him as a "professional companion" to famous women. That’s a pretty cynical way to look at it. If you look at the accounts from people who actually knew them, Wolders provided something these iconic women rarely found: total, unselfish devotion.
- He wasn't a social climber. He already had a career; he chose to leave it.
- He didn't want their money. He lived a relatively modest life after their deaths.
- He kept their secrets. He never wrote a "tell-all" book. He spoke about them with nothing but reverence until he died in 2018.
The relationship between Robert Wolders and Merle Oberon serves as a bridge between the Golden Age of Hollywood and the more modern, grounded era. It was a romance that defied the "rules" of the time.
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If you're looking to understand the real Merle Oberon, you have to look past the lighting filters of The Dark Angel. You have to look at those final years in Malibu with Wolders. He was the only one who saw her without the "Tasmanian" mask on.
To really get the full picture of this era, it's worth watching Interval. It's not a "good" movie—even the New York Times said it was "almost sublime" in its awfulness—but you can see the real-life chemistry. You can see two people falling in love while the cameras are rolling. It’s one of the few times a Hollywood legend actually let her guard down on screen.
For those interested in the complexities of Hollywood legacies, researching the Michael Korda memoir Charmed Lives is a great next step. Korda was Merle’s nephew, and his book provides the gritty, behind-the-scenes reality of the family dynamics that Wolders stepped into when he married Merle. It’s a fascinating look at the cost of keeping a secret for forty years.
Check out the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights immediately after watching Interval. The contrast between the young, hidden Merle and the older, liberated Merle is striking and tells you everything you need to know about the impact Robert Wolders had on her final chapter.