The Tragic Death Of Lesley Stahl's Husband Aaron Latham
Aaron Latham, journalist, screenwriter, and longtime husband of "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl, died on July 23 in Pennsylvania of complications from Parkinson's disease, according to Variety. He was 78. He is best known for penning the Esquire magazine story "Urban Cowboy," which inspired the 1980 film of the same name starring John Travolta and Debra Winger. Latham helped co-write the script for the film with director James Bridges — something he considered his favorite achievement – but also contributed as a journalist to publications such as Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The New York Times, among others.
Latham penned numerous western novels, including "Code of the West," "Riding with John Wayne," and "The Cowboy with the Tiffany Gun," which his wife said was one of his favorite things. "He loved being two things: He loved being a writer, and he loved being a father," Stahl — who shares a daughter with Latham — told Variety.
Aaron Latham met Lesley Stahl while reporting on the Watergate scandal
Aaron Latham first met Lesley Stahl while covering the Watergate scandal for New York Magazine in 1972, according to People. Stahl — who was also covering the scandal for CBS — said her future husband once called her outside of office hours, much to her ire. "He called me out of the blue," she recalled. "I think I slammed the phone down on him. We dated through the hearings and the trials. Then finally Nixon resigned, and we looked at each, other and we said, 'What are we going to talk about now?'" The two married in 1977.
Stahl and Latham were both diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020, something she says accelerated his Parkinson's Disease. "We got [COVID] together right at the very beginning," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "It really disrupted the course of his disease. Parkinson's is a progressively degenerate disorder, and he was going along in a very slow, incremental, downward trend, but not bad. But when he got COVID, he just went off the side of the cliff."