Piers Morgan has taken to Twitter to share his memories of meeting Sir Sidney Poitier and his wife Joanna Shimkus, 78, following the tragic news of the Oscar-winning actor’s death at the age of 94 today. The former Good Morning Britain presenter recalled chatting to the couple at Jackie Collins’ LA home a few years ago as he paid tribute to Sidney and his “great Hollywood marriage”.
The star shared an extract from one of his Daily Mail Event columns from 2014, which detailed their meeting, in view of his 7.9 million followers this evening.
He penned alongside it: “Had the pleasure of meeting Sidney Poitier and his delightful wife Joanna at a dinner party at Jackie Collins’ LA home a few years ago, and they told me this lovely story which I wrote about in my Mail diary.
“They had one of the great Hollywood marriages.”
In his column, Piers revealed that upon meeting Canadian actress Joanna, he took the opportunity to ask her “What’s the best and worst thing about living with an icon?”
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Joanna went on to give Piers a witty answer that detailed the “terrible mistake” she had made, which impacted the course of their relationship.
She cheekily replied: “Well, the best is that Sidney’s just as nice, decent and charming as you would think, which is why I’ve been with him for 48 years.
“The worst is that I made a terrible mistake when we first started dating and cooked him a really good meal.
“Since then, I’ve had to cook him a really good meal every damn night for 48 years!”
“‘Demanded more like! Each night I ask him what he wants from a list of things like lobster, shrimp, turkey, chicken or steak. Sidney makes his selection and I cook it for him.’”
Piers concluded: “This was the purest illustration of the proverb ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ that I’ve ever seen.”
Sidney was best known for his roles in iconic films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and Lilies of the Field, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar.
The star made history as the first black winner of the Academy Awards’ best actor gong.
Poitier tied the knot with Joanna in 1976 and they stayed married for the remainder of his life.
He shared four daughters with his first wife, Juanita Hardy, named Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, and Gina.
Poitier and Joanna also had two children together, Anika and Sydney Tamiia, who is also an actor.
Joanna has three grandchildren, one from Sydney Tamiia and two from Anika.
