Who is Olivia Williams married to? All about 'The Sixth Sense' star’s husband as she speaks out on health struggles

The past few years have been challenging for Olivia Williams, as The Crown actress battled with a rare tumor amidst misdiagnoses. In an interview with The Times UK, The Wheel of Time star reflected upon her health struggles and the frustration of getting incorrectly diagnosed multiple times before it was too late. Claiming that she will never be “cancer-free,” Williams said,

“If someone had f***ing well diagnosed me in the four years I’d been saying I was ill, when they told me I was menopausal or had irritable bowel syndrome or [was] crazy — I used that word advisedly because one doctor referred me for a psychiatric assessment — then one operation possibly could have cleared the whole thing and I could describe myself as cancer-free, which I cannot now ever be.”

Olivia Williams, a mother of two, has been married to actor-comedian-writer Rhashan Stone since 2003. The 55-year-old British actor is known for appearing in TV series like Bodies, Keeping Faith, Hollington Drive, and more. According to Bustle, Rhashan was born in 1969 to Joanne Stone in Newark, New Jersey. He was six when he moved to the UK after his mother married Russell Stone.

Per Bustle, Russell and Joanne were well-known as a musical duo, R&J Stone, active during the ‘70s. However, Rhashan Stone’s mother passed away due to a brain tumor when he was around 11.

He stayed in the UK and was raised by his stepfather, Russell. Rhashan, a Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts alum, later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and began his career as an actor-playwright.

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Rhashan Stone met his future wife, Olivia Williams, at the RSC

According to The Guardian, the actor couple met at the Royal Shakespeare Company. During an interview with the newspaper in 2008, Williams revealed during the conversation that Stone had asked her out years after their first meeting, and they eventually tied the knot within 18 months. Olivia described her spouse as “an incredible support and a wonderful father.” She also praised Rhashan,

“He's unbelievably talented. He can write a play with no sense of self-consciousness, while I can't write to save my life. I'm paralysed by my education into thinking, 'That's a dangling participle and I've split the infinitive, I might as well go and watch telly.'”

In another interview with The Guardian in 2012, Olivia Williams remarked on her late marriage,

“There's a reason I married quite late – because of the search for my father [in a man]. My parents' long and happy marriage was a great ideal to live up to, but a tough one.”

The actress lauded her husband, who she felt was like her father, for his “enormous strength of character,” while comparing their respective family lives.

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Olivia Williams raised her voice for “a cheap, early test” to diagnose pancreatic cancer

The Dune: Prophecy actress, who suffered from VIPoma, a rare cancerous tumor, spoke about the significance of early detection. Williams detailed her experience of undergoing many procedures to remove the tumor along with sections of her pancreas, spleen, gallbladder, and liver.

Despite removing VIPoma, it metastasized to the actress’s liver due to a late diagnosis, she told The Times UK. Later during the conversation, Olivia Williams revealed,

“The average time from diagnosis to death is three months — and that figure has not improved in 50 years. It takes an average person with my cancer, 11 visits to the GP to be diagnosed. For me it was probably about 21 times.”

The Friends guest actress told the outlet that she wasn’t asking for any sympathy and was instead advocating for “a cheap, early test” that could help detect cancer when it isn’t too late. The Pancreatic Cancer UK ambassador, who is supporting TCS London Marathon‘s charity of the year, said,

“It’s too late for me, and for all these people who are running in the marathon who’ve lost a parent or a friend, who could have been saved by a pancreatectomy [removal of the pancreas] if the cancer had been found before it spread.”

She added,

“This is where I get emotional but I’m not looking for sympathy, I’m looking for a cheap, early test.”

Olivia Williams, who recently appeared in the third season of The Wheel of Time, will next be seen in Monster: The Original Monster, the next iteration of the eponymous anthology series.