Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve’s True Love Affair: Will Their Movie Ever Get Made ?

Barb Oates May 25, 8:00 am

Jane Seymour, Christopher Reeve, Somewhere in Time, Everett Collection — Everett Collection

In June of 2024, Jane Seymour spent a weekend with fans at Michigan’s famed Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, the setting for her beloved film Somewhere in Time (1980), in which she costarred with Christopher Reeve, with whom she had a passionate love affair.

The event, however, was tied to both the film and her hit Acorn TV series Harry Wild, which returned for a fourth season on Monday, May 5 (new episodes drop on Mondays). While Seymour’s taken part in several events at the island over the years, this was a first for her Harry Wild costars Rohan Nedd (who plays Fergus, pictured left) and Kevin Ryan (who plays Charlie Wild). The three are a true family onscreen and off (traveling, eating and hobnobbing with all of Seymour’s famous friends).

Harry Wild cast, Jane Seymour, Rohan Nedd, Kevin Ryan

ReMIND Magazine

In a break from promoting Harry Wild, Seymour spoke candidly about her love affair with Mackinac Island and more particularly about her costar Christopher Reeve and the behind-the-scenes movie she so desperately would love to make about their relationship.

“I haven’t been able to count how many times, but it is countless times,” Seymour says of rewatching the film. “It always gets me, and it makes me cry, and it takes me back. The movie I would want to make someday is a movie of what was happening on the island at the time that we made it. The love story.”

At the time the movie was being filmed in 1979, Seymour was about 28, and Reeve was about 27 and just fresh off his success as the star of Superman.

Grand Hotel, Somewhere in Time, Jane Seymour, Christopher Reeve

The Grand Hotel displays photos and props from the film ‘Somewhere in Time.’ ReMIND Magazine

“This was the movie — the movie of my life,” Seymour shares. “It was a great experience. It was a little movie. Poor Chris Reeve thought his career was over. And yet, we loved the movie and fell madly in love making the movie, and that’s the magic pixie dust in the movie, but we kept that a secret until just before he died, and we remained really close friends until literally before he died.”

The couple would often sneak out late at night after filming and take Reeve’s prop airplane out for a ride. Their relationship, however, came to a halt on set when Reeve received a call from his ex, British model Gae Exton, sharing that she was pregnant. Reeve, forever the gentleman, ended his relationship with Seymour and committed to raising his son (and later daughter) with Exton. He married Dana Reeve in 1992 and they welcomed their son William shortly thereafter.

Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan, Somewhere in Time, Jane Seymour, Christopher Reeve

Hanging on the walls of the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan. ReMIND Magazine

An extra told us that at the wrap party for Somewhere in Time, everyone was getting pushed into the famed pool at the Grand Hotel. We asked Seymour what she remembered of that night, and it was one of heartbreak.

“I know I was crying because I was really upset. I thought I’d never see Chris again other than promotions or whatever. I’d given him a watch. I inscribed in it special words to him, just like in the movie,” she shares.

Somewhere in Time, pocket watch, 1980, Christopher Reeve

A replica pocket watch from the movie “Somewhere in Time” is displayed at The Grand Hotel. ReMIND Magazine

“I actually had the props guy go and find one just like it for me. And after he’d had his [horse-riding accident in 1995], he could never tell anyone about the watch because we were never supposed to have been together. So I kept asking him, where’s the watch? So somewhere in the world, there is a watch that’s inscribed from me to him. And our nicknames were Big Foot and Little Foot.”

Actress Jane Seymour and Actor Christopher Reeve take a break during filming of 'Somewhere in Time' on the veranda of the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan in May, 1979.

Eddie Sanderson/Getty Images

Seymour is definitely open to the idea of sharing her story in an original film adaptation.

Now, more than ever, is the perfect time to push her passion project through via her current partners like Acorn, AMC and BBC America. In addition to two more new episodes for Season 4 of Harry Wild (dropping May 26 and June 2), Seymour’s next project is Relative Secrets. which

Seymour is on the case again — this time for real — helping individuals solve their complicated family mysteries in Relative Secrets. The part true-crime and part genealogy series, which begins Monday, June 2 on BBC America, looks at an everyday American family’s darkest mystery, aiming both to solve the mystery and explore how it shapes that family today. Seymour is joined by archaeologist Natasha Billson in the four-episode series where they will introduce viewers to both charismatic heroes and terrifying villains, ranging from a 99-year-old World War II veteran who worries his absence led to the murder of his grandmother, to the daughter of a serial killer desperate to carve out her own identity from her father’s sordid past, to a mother who abandoned her three children to start a new secret life.