Shatner tells how he lost and found love

Actor William Shatner has spoken candidly about the death of his third wife.

In a rare interview, Shatner, 70, described how he coped with the loss of his wife, model Nerine Kidd, who drowned in the couple's swimming pool in California in August 1999.

And during an interview on the CNN Larry King Live show the Star Trek star told how he was lucky to find love again.

Shatner married his fourth wife Elizabeth Martin, 43, in Indiana last year.

In the interview, the father-of-four said: "My wife, whom I loved dearly and who loved me, was suffering with a disease that we don't like to talk about ... alcoholism. And met a tragic ending because of it.

"And to deal with that double sword of publicity and grief at the same time was monumental.

"It was the love of my life, the bulwark of what I was, my family and my wife. My wife is dead. And what do you do? Your life has ended, in effect.

"I had the healing of my family around me. I had the love of friends and family. My daughters one-by- one lived with me - they'd each take a week and live with me. And so, slowly I was able to come around."

Shatner said he was lucky in finding someone else to love: "I lucked out. You met my wife Elizabeth, a most wonderful, loving person. I was so lucky in finding somebody.

"She understood my grief because she had nursed her husband in cancer for a year and a half, who died about two years before Nerine died."