Elizabeth Anderson Martin: The Full Story of William Shatner’s Ex-Wife

Elizabeth Anderson Martin is a horse trainer, equestrian judge, photographer, and digital artist. Most readers know her name because she was the fourth wife of actor William Shatner, the star famous worldwide as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. The two shared a deep love of horses, and that shared passion was at the center of their life together.

Their story is unusual. They married in 2001, divorced in 2020 after eighteen years together, and then found their way back to each other during the pandemic years. Shatner has since described them as being, in effect, remarried, even without a new ceremony. This article tells her own story first – her horses, her art, and her work – and then the full, documented story of the marriage.

Quick Facts

Early Life and a Love of Horses

Elizabeth Joyce Anderson was born on December 30, 1958, in the United States. That date is reported consistently across biography sources. Details about her parents and her childhood home are not widely documented, and she has kept that part of her life private. What every profile agrees on is the central fact of her youth – she loved horses from a very young age.

Sources say she began riding at about the age of five. By the age of fourteen, she was already training horses, which is early even in the horse world. Training a horse requires patience, calm, and a real understanding of animal behavior. A young trainer must learn how a horse thinks, how it reacts to fear, and how to build trust day by day. That Elizabeth was doing this work as a teenager shows how serious her gift was.

She turned that gift into formal study. She attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and graduated with a degree in equine and animal science. Purdue is well known for its agriculture and animal programs, so the degree gave her scientific knowledge to match her practical skill. It covered areas such as animal health, breeding, and care.

That mix of hands on experience and university study shaped her whole career. She was not a celebrity who later took up horses as a hobby. She was a horse professional first, long before she ever met a famous actor.

A Career in the Equestrian World

As an adult, Elizabeth built a respected name in equestrian circles. She worked as a horse trainer and as a competitor, and later as a judge at horse competitions. Profiles mention her judging work at events linked to groups such as the Indiana Arabian Club, and they mention honors such as a WHINNY Award for her contributions to the horse world. The full list of her competitions and awards is not collected in one official public record, so this article names only the work that is most often reported.

Judging is a position of trust. A judge must know breed standards, movement, and presentation in fine detail, and must be fair to every competitor. That Elizabeth was invited to judge shows that other professionals valued her eye and her honesty.

Horses also shaped her charitable work. She became closely involved in the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, the annual event founded by William Shatner that raises money for charities serving children and others in need. Elizabeth helped with the event during their marriage, appearing not just as a guest but as someone who truly understood the animals and the sport at its heart.

Her knowledge later reached television audiences too. She appeared in programs connected to Shatner’s life and work, including E! True Hollywood Story, American Pickers in 2011, and The Shatner Project in 2014, among other listed appearances. Those appearances were a side path, not her main career. Her main career was always in the barn, the arena, and later, behind a camera.

Photography and Art by Nature

In her later career, Elizabeth developed a second creative life as a photographer and digital artist. She created a website and brand called Art by Nature, where she shares nature photography presented under the name Flowrosophy. Her work focuses on the natural world – light, flowers, landscapes, and animals, often treated with digital techniques that give the images a flowing, painterly feel.

The move from horses to photography is not as large a jump as it may seem. Both demand a trained eye. A horse trainer watches movement and balance all day. A photographer watches light and shape. In both fields, patience is everything, and small details make the whole picture.

Her art also gave her an identity fully separate from her marriage. When she exhibits or shares her images, she is judged on the work itself. Profiles describe her as a digital nature artist alongside her equestrian titles, and the two together give a fuller picture of who she is – a woman of the outdoors, of animals, and of quiet, careful observation.

First Marriage to Michael Glenn Martin

Before she met William Shatner, Elizabeth was married to Michael Glenn Martin. Sources report that they married on November 19, 1983. The marriage lasted until Martin’s death on August 3, 1997. The cause of his death is not clearly stated in reliable public sources, and this article does not guess at it.

That loss is an important part of her story. She was widowed in her late thirties, after fourteen years of marriage. She carried the Martin name from that marriage, which is why she is widely known as Elizabeth Anderson Martin – Anderson from her birth family and Martin from her first marriage.

Shatner, too, knew grief. His third wife, Nerine Kidd, died in 1999 in an accidental drowning in the couple’s pool, after a struggle with alcohol addiction that Shatner has discussed openly in his books and interviews. So when Elizabeth and Shatner came together around 2000 and 2001, both of them understood loss. Friends and profiles have often noted that shared understanding, along with their shared love of horses, as the bond that brought them close.

Marriage to William Shatner

Elizabeth married William Shatner on February 13, 2001. Wikipedia and many other sources confirm that date. Shatner was about to turn seventy, and Elizabeth was forty two, an age difference of roughly twenty seven to twenty eight years that the press noted often. The couple themselves focused less on age and more on their shared life – horses, farms, charity work, and travel.

In 2004, Elizabeth co-wrote the song Together on Shatner’s album Has Been. That small credit shows how their creative lives mixed. Shatner, famous for acting in Star Trek, T. J. Hooker, and Boston Legal, also recorded music, wrote books, and bred American Saddlebred horses at his farm. Elizabeth fit naturally into that world because horses were already her world.

The couple appeared together at red carpet events, award shows, and horse shows for nearly two decades. They supported charity causes together, including work linked to children’s charities through the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. They had no children together, and Elizabeth has no children reported from her first marriage. Shatner has three daughters from his first marriage to Gloria Rand.

In 2019, Shatner filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in January 2020. News reports on the settlement said Elizabeth received a lump sum payment reported at around two million dollars, kept several horses she valued, and kept visiting rights to horses at Shatner’s farm in Kentucky, while Shatner kept his main home and his acting royalties. Settlement figures come from news reports of court filings at the time. The couple handled the process in a calm and respectful way in public, with no bitter public fight.

Reconciliation After Divorce

The most surprising chapter came next. Soon after the divorce was final, the Covid-19 pandemic began, and the former couple chose to spend lockdown together in Los Angeles. What began as practical support during a crisis became a true reconciliation.

By 2021, Shatner was speaking of Elizabeth as his partner again. In a March 2024 interview with Parade magazine, he said clearly that they had, in his words, in effect remarried, but had not done another ceremony. Wikipedia, updated with recent sources, likewise notes that although they remain legally divorced, as of 2025 they have reconciled and Shatner again refers to her as his wife.

They have since appeared together at public events, including aviation and charity galas, with Elizabeth at his side and, observers noted, a ring on her finger. In his nineties, Shatner has spoken about the value of companionship and mutual care in later life. Their story, after divorce, became a story about choosing each other again – older, clearer about what matters, and without needing paperwork to prove it.

Questions about Elizabeth’s personal net worth appear often online. Figures published by biography websites vary, and none comes from records released by her. Any such figure should be read as an unverified estimate only. What is documented is her long professional career, her divorce settlement as reported by news outlets, and her ongoing art work.

FAQs

Who is Elizabeth Anderson Martin?

She is an American horse trainer, equestrian judge, photographer, and digital artist. She is best known to the wider public as the fourth wife of actor William Shatner, to whom she was married from 2001 until their divorce in 2020.

Are Elizabeth Anderson Martin and William Shatner back together?

Yes, according to Shatner’s own interviews. They reconciled during the pandemic after their 2020 divorce. In 2024 he told Parade they were in effect remarried, living together as life partners without a new legal ceremony.

What does Elizabeth Anderson Martin do for a living?

She built her career in the horse world as a trainer, competitor, and judge, after studying equine and animal science at Purdue University. She later became a nature photographer and digital artist through her Art by Nature work.

Was Elizabeth Anderson Martin married before William Shatner?

Yes. She was married to Michael Glenn Martin from 1983 until his death in 1997. She was widowed before she later met and married Shatner in 2001.

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Final Thoughts

Elizabeth Anderson Martin’s life is much more than a famous marriage. It is the life of a girl who rode at five, trained horses at fourteen, studied animal science at university, and earned respect as a trainer and judge. It is also the life of an artist who learned to see nature through a camera and to share that vision with others.

Her marriage to William Shatner brought her into a bright public light, and its ending in 2020 looked like a final chapter. Instead, the two wrote another chapter together, on their own terms. That mix of independence and devotion – her own career, her own art, and a love chosen twice – is what makes her full story worth telling.

Featured photo: William Shatner – photo by Romain Brami, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons