Who was Tom Stoppard's first wife, Josie Ingle? Acclaimed playwright's early marriage explored as he dies at 88

Legendary playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard has died.

The news of his death was confirmed by a statement from his management, United Agents.

The statement read:

“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family.”

It continued:

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language. It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him.”

Tom Stoppard left the world in November 2025 and is survived by his four children. The playwright was previously married three times. The first was to a nurse named Josoe Ingle, whom Tom married in 1965. They were parents to two children, sons, Oliver and Barnaby. In 1972, the couple split.

According to a review of his biography titled, Tom Stoppard: A Life published by The Critic, the couple had a messy breakup, and Josie was a depressed alcoholic whom Tom had to fight to gain custody of their two sons. Rumors suggest that Stoppard's 1982 drama The Real Thing contains an iota of truth about their marriage.

More details on Tom Stoppard’s career

Tom Stoppard was a well-known writer in the entertainment community. He wrote for stage, film, and radio, where he gained the most prominence. In a 1977 interview with People magazine, the playwright revealed that he had little to no literary promise as a child.

He stated:

“I found Shakespeare boring and even [the Charles Dickens novel] David Copperfield was an awful trudge. If I had been run over by a bus then, I would have been one of the most ignorant corpses around.”

Speaking about one of his most popular plays, Leopoldstadt, Stoppard told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2023 interview that he was inspired by his family's experiences during the war.

“Because of the age I got to, I was born in 1937, it just felt like time that I dealt with my family’s history. But at the same time. I could also say that it arrived in my mind as something I had an instinctive interest in doing. I’d never before thought of my family history, or my own history, as being an inspiration for a play.”

He continued:

“I’d never remotely come close to writing a play, just by my own personal history, of being connected to, in a negative way, the most important event in European history in the 20th century.”

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