The benefit of hindsight puts all sorts of innocuous life events into a new, auspicious light. Just last spring, Anson Williams said “I do” with memoirist Sharon MaHarry, and the start of this testament to true love blossomed when Williams reached his 70s.
Williams, today 74, is known for playing the talented, good-hearted Warren “Potsie” Weber on Happy Days, putting forward a performance that saw him nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Well into the aftermath, Williams and Sharon were in very different places when they first met years ago than they are today – and they were in for even more emotional tumult before they foun done another again.
Anson Williams tied the knot with his wife Sharon after first crossing paths years ago
Williams has been married three times now; his first wife was Lorrie Mahaffey, to whom he was wed from 1978 to 1986. He was married to Jackie Gerken from 1988 to 2019. It was while both Williams and Sharon were married that they first crossed paths.
RELATED: Whatever Happened To Anson Williams From ‘Happy Days?’
“It’s a very interesting story,” Williams mused. “I bought my Ojai house, almost 14 years ago, and at the time, Sharon was in real estate, and she sold it to me and to my wife at the time.”
He went on, “And, years later, I mean, years later, when I was divorced and went through all that, and I ended up with the Ojai house.”
“She never left my mind,” Williams added.
Anson Williams found happiness with Sharon in his 70s
His thoughts knew where to look when they both needed each other most. Sharon had been married to her husband for 35 years before they were separated; he passed away from a long-term illness. Sharon fully believed she would never find love again. “I just thought this was it. I’m a widow, this is who I am now,” admitted Sharon. This finality left her in “such a dark place.”
Then, she reconnected with Williams, “and he completely turned that around,” said Sharon, adding, “It was like a gift from God that I met him.”
Williams found himself in a dark place too when he divorced Gerken in 2019; that loneliness coupled with the aftermath of an earlier battle with colon cancer left Willams feeling despondent. “And I just called one day,” he recounted. “I didn’t know her situation, but it turned out her husband had passed and all this went on. And so I asked her to lunch, and we’ve been together since that lunch.”
ANSON and SHARON congratulations on your wedding ❤️ May your joining together bring you more joy than you can imagine🥂❤️ #ansonwilliams #happywedding pic.twitter.com/kcEeHLCW9U
— Happy Days Intl. f.c (@happydaysfc) May 7, 2023
He went on, “But here’s what’s funny. We’re having lunch and it’s been years. And she’s sitting down at a table. I sit down and we have a three-hour lunch. And I mean, just an amazing three hours crying and just such, such a connected experience. And finally we say, you know, ‘We got to go. We got to — you know — and she goes, ’Yeah, yeah. Can you please hand me my crutches?’ I go, ‘Excuse me?’ It turned out that she had taken a fall, a bad fall down the stairs, was in the hospital for a month, had all this corrective surgery on her knee and was one day out of the wheelchair.”
Williams went on to gush that “our relationship was giving and caring and, it’s just progressed from there into such a — just a monumental relationship and now a creative partner.”
So, at 73, Williams found himself marrying his best friend, Sharon MaHarry, during a May 6, 2023 ceremony with his Happy Days costar and dear friend Danny Most serving as best man. The main takeaway Williams gained from this is the same one he wants others to remember: “There’s no age limit on being loved. There’s no age limit on living life fully.”