Martha Hart
| Martha Hart | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Martha Joan Patterson October 31, 1966 Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Education | Psychology and Sociology |
| Alma mater | University of Calgary |
| Spouse(s) | Owen Hart (m. 1989; his death 1999) |
| Children | 2 |
| Family | Hart |
Dr. Martha Joan Hart (née Patterson) (born October 31, 1966) is the widow of professional wrestler Owen Hart. After her husband's death in an accident at a WWF event Hart sued the World Wrestling Federation, later wrote a book about her husbands life and created a charity in his name. She has subsecuently been involved in several legal cases involving her husband image.
Hart was born Martha Joan Patterson on October 31, 1966, and is the youngest of 11 children. Her mother, Joan, had battled breast cancer before Hart and her sister Virginia were born; her father left her mother when Martha was young. She has completed two degrees at the University of Calgary in Psychology (with distinction) and Sociology (1st-class honours) before moving to England to complete a master's degree and a PhD in Social and Development Psychology at Cambridge University. She has since worked as a university researcher in the area of pediatrics.
She met her husband, Owen Hart, in 1982 at the age of 15, while they were both still in high school. She attended a Stampede Wrestling event with a friend, and met Owen after recognizing him as one of the wrestlers who attended her school for a wrestling practice. They married on July 1, 1989, and had two children together: Oje Edward Hart (born March 5, 1992) and Athena Christie Hart (born September 23, 1995). Owen died while performing a stunt on May 23, 1999, at the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)'s Over the Edge pay-per-view. As a result of the charitable contributions achieved through the Owen Hart Foundation, Martha was named Individual Philanthropist of the Year in 2004 by the AFP. She was Calgary's 2011 Champions of Learning.
Three weeks after Owen's death, Hart launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the WWF, she included her children and Owen's parents on the lawsuit, which was settled out of court for approximately $18 million on November 2, 2000. She set aside millions of the settlement to establish the Owen Hart Foundation. She has managed the foundation since 1999. She gave 2 million dollars to the Owen Hart Foundation to help those who are less fortunate. After the lawsuit, Martha separated herself from the majority of the Hart family. She criticized those family members who worked against her with the WWF.
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