Angie Mayhew, Wife of Star Wars’ Peter Mayhew, Has Died

According to a tweet from The Peter Mayhew Foundation, Mary Angelique Mayhew has passed away. Better known as Angie, Mayhew was the widow of Peter Mayhew, the actor known for playing Chewbacca in Star Wars. Since Peter Mayhew’s passing in 2019, Angie had been very active on social media and often honored her husband’s legacy with various posts. The couple married in 1999 in Texas, and the Star Wars legend became stepfather to Angie’s three children. Today, the Twitter account for The Peter Mayhew Foundation revealed the cause of Angie’s death.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our beloved Angie Mayhew.After complications from a double heart valve replacement surgery, she has joined her beloved, Peter Mayhew, in the stars.Her kindness, love and generosity will always be remembered,” the post read. You can view it below:

You can read a description from The Peter Mayhew Foundation‘s website here: “The Peter Mayhew Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to the alleviation of disease, pain, suffering, and the financial toll brought on by life’s traumatic events. By providing its available resources directly to deserving children and adults in need, we assist numerous charitable organizations in order to promote and boost their effectiveness and provide support where needed.” 

Angie Mayhew is mentioned many times on the foundation’s website, including this very sweet description of her relationship with Peter: “[Peter] enjoys the friendships that the Star Wars universe has brought to his life by attending such events including the most cherished one with his wife Angie.” You can view a recent photo of Angie celebrating her birthday below:

In February, Angie took to Twitter to reveal her dismay over the fact that items left behind by her and her husband during a move were being sold for auction without her knowledge. Due to his health problems, Mayhew was forced to leave behind some memorabilia in his attic during a move, and the abandoned items were eventually found and put up for auction. According to BBC, the items have since been returned to The Peter Mayhew Foundation. 

“When we moved out of this house Peter’s movement challenges made it impossible for him to get into the attic to get the rest of these memories. It really breaks my heart to see our belongings auctioned off like this by @angusashworth and @RyedaleAuction1,” Angie Mayhew wrote on Twitter. “It was one of Peter’s and my biggest regrets that we had to leave these items behind, but his knees and joints had gotten to be so painful that he was no longer able to go into the attic to get them.”

The items in question included an original Star Wars script as well as a call sheet. According to the report, auctioneer Angus Ashworth was unaware of Mayhew’s issue with the auction until seeing the tweet. 

“I was approached by a lovely older couple who were clearing their attic a quarter of a century after moving into their property,” Ashworth said in a statement. “The contents of the attic included a bag of Star Wars memorabilia, which I thought might be of some interest to Star Wars fans.” He added, “Nobody had approached us to discuss it, and had they done so I would of course have talked to the vendors … The monetary value of the lot is fairly modest, but knowing how much it means to the foundation, and given that it had been in the attic for over 24 years, the vendors are quite happy to donate it to the foundation to have permanently within their personal collection, not for profit, so that fans can access it in perpetuity.”

Our thoughts are with Mayhew’s family at this difficult time.