Josephine Burge is a British woman born in April 1964 in Surrey, England, who is known as the second wife and widow of English actor Oliver Reed. She married Reed on September 7, 1985, in a private civil ceremony in Epsom, Surrey, when she was 21 years old and Reed was 46. Their marriage lasted nearly fourteen years until Reed’s sudden death from a heart attack on May 2, 1999, in Valletta, Malta, during the filming of Gladiator. The couple lived their married life quietly in the British countryside and later in Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland, where Reed is buried. Josephine has remained entirely private since his death.
TL;DR
- Josephine Burge, British woman born April 1964 in Surrey, known as the second wife and widow of actor Oliver Reed.
- Married Oliver Reed on September 7, 1985, in Epsom, Surrey; 25 years younger than him.
- Marriage lasted nearly 14 years until Reed’s death on May 2, 1999, in Malta during filming of Gladiator.
- Lived with Reed in England and later Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland, in deliberate rural privacy.
- Has maintained complete privacy since Reed’s death; net worth not publicly disclosed.
Quick Bio
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Josephine Mary Burge |
| Known As | Josephine Burge; Josephine Reed |
| Date of Birth | April 1964 (exact date not publicly disclosed) |
| Age | Approximately 61 to 62 years old (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace | Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | White British |
| Religion | Not publicly disclosed |
| Education | Not publicly disclosed |
| Profession | Not publicly disclosed; no documented career |
| Platforms | None (no confirmed public social media) |
| Height | Not publicly disclosed |
| Relationship Status | Widow (Oliver Reed, married September 7, 1985; died May 2, 1999) |
| Net Worth | Not publicly disclosed (estimated) |
Who is Josephine Burge?
Josephine Burge is a British woman from Surrey, born in April 1964, who became publicly known as the second wife and widow of English actor Oliver Reed, one of British cinema’s most celebrated and controversial figures of the 1960s and 1970s.
Josephine Burge entered the public record through her marriage rather than through any independent professional activity. She met Oliver Reed in the early 1980s, when he was already one of Britain’s most recognised actors, known for performances in Oliver! (1968), Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), The Three Musketeers (1973), and Tommy (1975). Reed was 25 years her senior and notorious for heavy drinking and unpredictable behaviour, yet by most accounts Josephine provided the most stable domestic chapter of his adult life. They married in September 1985 and spent their years together largely in rural England before relocating to Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland, in the latter part of the marriage.
Reed died suddenly in Malta in May 1999 during the filming of Gladiator, the film that marked his late-career return to major Hollywood productions. Josephine was not present at the time. Since his death, she has maintained an absolute public silence, declining all media engagement, interviews, and appearances. She is buried — metaphorically, in terms of public presence — as completely as Oliver Reed is literally: he rests at Bruhenny Graveyard in Churchtown, County Cork.
Marion Shalloe, the first wife of Piers Morgan, provides a comparable study of a private British woman whose public profile exists almost entirely in relation to her marriage to a more prominent figure, yet who built a substantial independent professional life outside that association.
Early Life and Background
Childhood and Family
Josephine Mary Burge was born in April 1964 in Surrey, England; her parents, siblings, and early family circumstances have not been confirmed in any verified public source.
WikiTree genealogical records confirm her birth as April 1964 in Surrey South Western, Surrey, providing the most specific documented data point about her origins. Surrey in the early 1960s was predominantly middle-class commuter belt territory south of London. Beyond the county of birth and approximate birth month, no confirmed details about her parents, family background, or upbringing are available in the public domain. Multiple biographical sources note that she was approximately 16 to 17 years old when she first encountered Oliver Reed in the early 1980s, establishing that her family was based in a location accessible to Reed’s social and professional circle during that period.
Education
Josephine Burge’s educational background has not been confirmed in any public source; she has never given interviews and no school, university, or professional training is documented in connection with her name.
She was 21 years old at the time of her marriage to Oliver Reed in September 1985, suggesting she completed her secondary schooling during the late 1970s and early 1980s and was in her late teens to early twenties during the years the couple’s relationship developed. Beyond this chronological inference, nothing is confirmed about her formal education.
Career Journey
Before Fame
No professional career or employment history for Josephine Burge has been documented in any public or media source; she had no public profile prior to her relationship with Oliver Reed.
Unlike many women connected to prominent entertainers, Josephine Burge has no documented career in film, television, theatre, journalism, business, or any other field. Her public presence begins and ends with her marriage to Oliver Reed. This is not unusual for a woman of her generation and background, particularly one who met her future husband as a teenager and married in her early twenties, but it means there is no independent professional narrative to trace before or after the marriage.
How Josephine Burge Got Started
Josephine Burge met Oliver Reed in the early 1980s, reportedly around 1980, when she was approximately 16 to 17 years old and Reed was in his early forties, a significant age gap that attracted public attention when the marriage was announced in 1985.
The circumstances of their first meeting have not been documented in any confirmed primary source. Oliver Reed’s first marriage to Kate Byrne lasted from 1960 to 1969, producing a son, Mark. Reed subsequently had a long-term relationship with dancer Jacquie Daryl, with whom he had a daughter, Sarah, after meeting her on the set of Oliver! (1968). By the time he met Josephine, Reed had been living as a tax exile on Guernsey and had returned to England periodically. Josephine’s youth and calm temperament were noted by observers of the relationship as providing something that had been absent from Reed’s personal life: stability and groundedness without demand for public recognition in return.
Career Today
Josephine Burge has had no confirmed public career before, during, or after her marriage to Oliver Reed; she has lived entirely privately since his death in May 1999.
Multiple sources confirm that she has made no public statements, given no interviews, appeared at no public events, and maintains no social media presence as of 2026. The most recent confirmed detail about her life is that she was described as alive and living privately, believed to be in Ireland, in 2025 biographical coverage. Oliver Reed was buried at Bruhenny Graveyard in Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland, the village where the couple had made their rural home in the final years of his life.
Personal Life
Relationships
Josephine Burge married Oliver Reed on September 7, 1985, in a private civil ceremony in Epsom, Surrey; she was 21 and Reed was 47 at the time; the marriage lasted until his death on May 2, 1999, in Valletta, Malta.
Their wedding was a modest civil ceremony reflecting Josephine’s preference for privacy and Reed’s by-then more settled domestic inclinations. A tribute posted on Reed’s funeral notice page by someone identified as Sophie Wilde described the couple as “a beautiful couple, her yin to his yang, she was just perfect.” The marriage took place when Reed was at a point in his career where his earlier prominence had somewhat subsided: major Hollywood roles had diminished through the 1980s, and he was living more quietly than his earlier hellraiser reputation suggested. Josephine and Oliver settled in the British countryside initially before moving to Churchtown in County Cork, Ireland, in the years before his death.
Reed died on May 2, 1999, in Valletta, Malta, at age 61, from a heart attack reportedly occurring after a night of heavy drinking at a local bar with Royal Navy sailors and Gladiator cast and crew. His death was sudden and occurred while Josephine was in Ireland. He had not completed filming his scenes for Gladiator; his remaining scenes were completed using digital effects incorporating footage already shot. Oliver Reed’s role as Proximo in Gladiator (2000) became one of the most discussed posthumous screen appearances in modern cinema. Josephine was his widow for over 26 years by 2026.
Family
Oliver Reed had two acknowledged children from relationships before his marriage to Josephine: son Mark from his first marriage to Kate Byrne, and daughter Sarah from his relationship with dancer Jacquie Daryl.
Wikipedia records Oliver Reed’s children as two: Mark (from Kate Byrne) and Sarah (from Jacquie Daryl). Some secondary sources claim Josephine and Oliver had children together, but this is not confirmed by Wikipedia, IMDb, or any verified primary source, and should be treated as unconfirmed. Oliver Reed’s first marriage to Kate Byrne ran from approximately 1960 to 1969. His relationship with Jacquie Daryl, whom he met on the set of Oliver! (1968), produced daughter Sarah. Reed was the nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed and the great-grandson of actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, placing him within one of Britain’s most distinguished theatrical and cinematic dynasties.
Criminal Record and Legal History
No criminal record, legal proceedings, or controversy has been attributed to Josephine Burge in any verified source; her private life has been entirely free of public legal incident.
Achievements and Milestones
- Married Oliver Reed on September 7, 1985, in Epsom, Surrey, becoming his second wife in a marriage that lasted nearly 14 years until his death.
- At 21 years old at the time of marriage, she was 25 years younger than Reed, a detail that drew significant media attention in 1985.
- Shared a life with Reed through the rural English countryside and later County Cork, Ireland, providing the most domestically stable period of his adult life according to multiple accounts.
- Was Oliver Reed’s widow at the time of his death on May 2, 1999, in Valletta, Malta, during the filming of Gladiator, and has maintained absolute privacy for over 26 years since.
- Has successfully avoided all media contact, public appearances, and social media engagement for more than two decades, making her privacy one of the most consistently maintained in modern British public life adjacent to celebrity.
Interesting Facts About Josephine Burge
- Josephine was born in April 1964, confirmed by WikiTree genealogical records, making her exactly 25 years and approximately 8 months younger than Oliver Reed, who was born in February 1938.
- Oliver Reed died in Malta during the filming of Gladiator (2000); the role of Proximo, which Reed did not finish filming, was completed using digital compositing of footage he had already shot, and the film went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2001.
- Reed is buried at Bruhenny Graveyard in Churchtown, County Cork, the Irish village where he and Josephine made their home in the final years of his life, rooting their marriage geographically in rural Ireland even though Josephine herself was born in Surrey.
- A tribute posted on Reed’s online funeral notice page described the couple as “a beautiful couple, her yin to his yang,” capturing how contemporaries viewed the dynamic of their relationship.
- Oliver Reed’s first marriage to Kate Byrne lasted nine years (1960 to 1969); his marriage to Josephine lasted nearly fourteen years, making it his longest and final relationship.
- Reed was the great-grandson of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the Victorian actor-manager who founded RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and built Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, meaning Josephine married into one of the most historically significant theatrical dynasties in British history.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Josephine Burge?
Josephine Burge is a British woman born in April 1964 in Surrey, England, known primarily as the second wife and widow of English actor Oliver Reed. She married Reed on September 7, 1985, in Epsom, Surrey, and remained married to him until his death on May 2, 1999.
When did Josephine Burge marry Oliver Reed?
Josephine Burge and Oliver Reed married on September 7, 1985, in a private civil ceremony in Epsom, Surrey. Josephine was 21 years old and Reed was 47 at the time of the wedding.
How did Oliver Reed die and where was Josephine Burge?
Oliver Reed died on May 2, 1999, in Valletta, Malta, at age 61, from a heart attack during the filming of Gladiator. Josephine was in Ireland at the time. Reed had not finished filming his role as Proximo; the remaining scenes were completed digitally.
Did Josephine Burge have children with Oliver Reed?
Josephine Burge has not confirmed any children with Oliver Reed in any verified public source. Reed had two acknowledged children before his marriage to Josephine: son Mark from his first wife Kate Byrne, and daughter Sarah from his relationship with dancer Jacquie Daryl.
What happened to Josephine Burge after Oliver Reed died?
Since Oliver Reed’s death in 1999, Josephine Burge has maintained complete privacy, giving no interviews, attending no public events, and maintaining no social media presence. She is believed to be alive and living privately as of 2026.
