Julie Andrews met her first husband, Tony Walton when she was 11 years old. After Walton saw Andrews perform, he wrote to her, and they began exchanging letters. In her memoir, "Home," Andrews recalled being 22 and having dinner at his family home. "We looked at each other and smiled, and I honestly don't know how it came about, but one of us whispered to the other, 'We should get married soon'" (via People). The pair tied the knot in 1959. A few years later, in 1962, Andrews had her first and only child with Walton, Emma.
For a while, the family seemed to do everything together. Walton, who had become a set and costume designer, was even a design consultant on "Mary Poppins." However, by 1968, Andrews and Walton had decided to part ways. Andrews went to therapy to help get through the split, and she and her daughter formed an even stronger bond. "Emma's dad, my first husband, and I separated, and that helped us," she told The Guardian. "I knew it was really important for me to make Emma's childhood as normal as possible, even though it was incredibly abnormal in many ways."
Walton and Andrews remained close after their divorce. After he died in 2022, she told People, "Tony was my dearest and oldest friend. He taught me to see the world with fresh eyes and his talent was simply monumental."
