Robert Wagner Reveals Wife Natalie Wood's Mysterious Death Still Hurts

11/18/2016 04:04 pm EST

Robert Wagner lost his wife, actress Natalie Wood, 35 years ago, but the legendary actor reveals that time has not stopped the pain.

"It's always with you," he told Good Morning America of how he has reacted to her death.

The West Side Story star drowned on a boating trip in 1981 when she was 43 years old. The family was on a family vacation at the time.

The actor has released a new book called I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses, which shares his stories of the women in Hollywood who helped shape his career.

"When Natalie died, I thought my life was over," he wrote in the book.

He has a daughter, Natasha Wagner, with Wood.

"We have her memories," he said of their lives now, "and that's the most important."

He also has memories of other major Hollywood starlets.

"I was so fortunate to be able to work with many of them and know a lot of them," the leading man recalled.

In the book, he recounts his interactions with such major names as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn, all of whom he gushes about.

"I just adored her," he said of late Breakfast at Tiffany's star, Hepburn. "Everybody that met her thought she was the best, and she was. She was a very, very special lady."

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