Susan Saint James Husband: Dick Ebersol’s Marriage to the Actress and Their Family Through the Years

Susan Saint James’s death certificate was the subject of new reporting on November 5, 2026, after her family had announced that the actress died on October 26 at 80. The reports identified pancreatic cancer as the cause. Among the loved ones she left behind was her husband, television executive Dick Ebersol, whom she married in 1981.

Their relationship lasted nearly 45 years and connected two distinctive television careers. Saint James was known for The Name of the Game, McMillan & Wife and Kate & Allie. Ebersol helped shape Saturday Night Live and later became one of the most influential executives in American sports broadcasting.

They had three sons together: Charlie, Willie and Teddy. Saint James also had daughter Sunshine Lucas and son Harmony Lucas from her earlier marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas. Teddy died in a plane crash in 2004, a loss that remained central to the family’s story.

Ebersol was Saint James’s husband at the time of her death. Her previous marriages had ended in divorce, while the marriage to Ebersol continued after a separation and reconciliation in 2002.

How Did Susan Saint James Meet Her Husband Dick Ebersol?

Saint James met Ebersol while hosting Saturday Night Live in 1981, when he was the program’s executive producer. Their introduction took place at work, but the relationship developed quickly. They married later that year, on November 21.

Contemporary UPI coverage reported the wedding shortly after it happened. That reporting is useful because it establishes the marriage independently of retrospective celebrity profiles. It also makes clear that Ebersol was her real-life spouse, unlike Rock Hudson, who played her husband on McMillan & Wife.

By the time they met, Saint James was already a familiar television performer. She had won an Emmy for The Name of the Game and spent several seasons playing Sally McMillan. Her screen chemistry with Hudson was part of her professional success, rather than evidence of a marriage away from the cameras.

Ebersol’s career was developing along a different path. He worked in television production and management, with responsibilities that eventually extended well beyond late-night entertainment. His later sports work included major Olympic broadcasts and the development of NBC’s football coverage.

That combination of careers became a practical part of their family life. At different times, one partner’s work demanded more attention while the other concentrated on home. Television Academy interviews record Ebersol discussing a period when he stepped back from Saturday Night Live to parent while Saint James worked on Kate & Allie.

What Was Their Marriage Like Away From Television?

The couple made their home in Connecticut, where Saint James increasingly concentrated on raising children after Kate & Allie ended in 1989. Her withdrawal from regular series work was not an immediate disappearance from acting: she later made occasional guest appearances and remained involved in charitable activities.

Saint James had two children before marrying Ebersol. Their blended household grew with the births of their three sons. An early UPI report about Charlie’s arrival described Sunshine and Harmony living with the couple in Litchfield, offering a contemporary glimpse of the family rather than a later reconstruction.

The marriage also went through a publicly reported difficult period. Saint James filed for divorce in 2002, but the couple reconciled that year. Because the marriage continued, Ebersol should not be described as her ex-husband on the basis of that filing.

His 2022 memoir, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night, places their relationship alongside the events of his broadcasting career. Its account of family life includes the enduring connections within their extended household, including Saint James’s former husband Tom Lucas.

The available interviews show a marriage that included professional cooperation, children and setbacks. They do not justify pretending the relationship was without difficulties. The reconciliation is part of the confirmed history, just as the decades they subsequently remained married are.

How Did the Death of Their Son Teddy Affect the Family?

On November 28, 2004, a private plane carrying Ebersol and sons Charlie and Teddy crashed during an attempted takeoff in Colorado. Ebersol and Charlie survived. Fourteen-year-old Teddy died, along with the pilot and a flight attendant. Saint James was not aboard when the crash occurred.

The family’s later public statements returned to the way Saint James supported her surviving children and husband after Teddy’s death. Following her own death, relatives highlighted the comfort she offered through his eulogy and the attention she continued to give to others experiencing grief.

Teddy’s name also became associated with memorial projects, including the Red Sox Fields in Boston. These tributes connected his enthusiasm for sport with spaces where other children could play. They became one way the family remembered him beyond the circumstances of the accident.

Saint James continued supporting Special Olympics, a cause with which she had a long relationship. Her charitable work and parenting were significant parts of her later life, alongside the television performances for which audiences remembered her.

At her death in October 2026, Ebersol remained her husband and the father of their three sons. Their marriage is best understood through that full history: an introduction at Saturday Night Live, decades in Connecticut, a reconciliation and a shared commitment to family through an extraordinary loss.