Robert Wagner speaks of the 'shattering loss’ he felt after his wife Natalie Wood died 35 years ago

The actress mysteriously drowned in 1981 and Mr Wagner raised three children alone

After divorcing in 1962, the couple remarried a decade later and had one child (Getty)

Robert Wagner has said that the death of his late wife Natalie Wood 35 years ago was “shattering” and that the bond with his stepdaughter Natasha became “very intense” as a result.

Speaking to People, the star of shows “It Takes A Thief” and “Hart to Hart”, said: “We were all so shattered by the loss, and we were hanging on to each other.

“My bond with Natasha is very, very intense. We've hung onto each other through the years and she means the world to me.”

Mr Wagner, now 86, was 43 years old when his wife died after she drowned near her yacht in the Pacific Ocean on 29 November, 1981.

Mr Wagner became the main carer for three children, his stepdaughter Natasha Greyson Warner, her younger sister Courtney and his older daughter Katie, from his marriage with his second wife Marion Marshall.

“They'd always been together,” he said. “So Richard [Gregson], her birth father, and I sat down and came to the conclusion that we felt it was best that Natasha stay with her sisters and be raised in the environment that she'd been raised in up to that point – to the point of Natalie leaving us.”

Mr Wagner married Ms Wood when she was 19 years old in 1957. The couple divorced in 1962 but remarried a decade later and had one child together, Courtney.

He reportedly refused to co-operate with investigators in 2013 when the case was reopened 32 years after Ms Wood's death.

The cause of Ms Wood's death was changed from “accidental” to “undetermined”.

Actor Christopher Walken, who was invited to join the couple on that Thanksgiving weekend on the Santa Catalina Island, told Playboy magazine in 1997 that only Ms Wood would have known what happened that night, as she was alone.

Mr Walken and Mr Wagner were reportedly having a nightcap together on the yacht when Ms Wood drowned.

It has been speculated that she fell into the water and was swept from the yacht by a wind funnel, and was not able to climb back into a dinghy that served as a tender for the yacht, according to the Huffington Post.

“What I remember most was that my dad was incredibly devastated and tender in telling us what had happened, and his biggest concern was for us at that time,” said Ms Greyson Warner, 45, who is launching a new perfume called “Natalie” after her mother.

“We held on to each other for dear life,” she added.

Speaking about the perfume, Mr Wagner told the magazine: ”I think it's wonderful. She really has a passion for this and it's not just a venture. It's out of love and out of caring.“

“Her mother was a very, very special and loving and caring person. She meant so much to Natasha. They were so close and she wants to share that.”