Stockard Channing makes first red carpet appearance in two years after ‘being a recluse’

Stockard Channing was spotted stepping onto her first red carpet in over two years, just weeks after saying she was “happy being a recluse.”

The 82-year-old actress attended the “Practical Magic 2” European premiere in London on Tuesday, wearing a tailored midnight blue suit with a cream-colored blouse.

She wore her brunette hair in soft waves and accessorized with a dramatic lariat chain necklace and duster earrings.

The “Grease” actress was joined at the glamorous event by co-stars including Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Maisie Williams and Dianne Wiest.

At one point, she wrapped her arm around Wiest for an affectionate photo.

Earlier this month, the Emmy-winning actress confessed in a Sunday Times essay that since the 2014 death of her partner, Daniel Gillham, at the age of 58, she’s “lived alone” as a recluse outside Hollywood.

Channing wrote that the loss after 25 years with the cinematographer was “more devastating than” she’d realized, and that mourning the loss “shifted … the pattern [of her] life.”

The “West Wing” alum ultimately sold her Los Angeles home and moved across the pond in 2019, where she takes things slowly and wears non-designer clothing.

“Pottering is my meditation; moving things from that pile to that pile,” she said, joking that “At my age, life is guided by bodily functions.”

Channing — who was married and divorced four times prior to her romance with Gillham — also explained that her movies all “take [her] back to a particular time,” acknowledging a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades.

“Different age groups recognize me from different characters,” she explained. “For younger girls it’s ‘Practical Magic,’ for grown-ups it’s ‘The West Wing,’ and for real grown-ups it’s ‘Grease.’”

And though she directed a show in Edinburgh this year on top of appearing in the beloved sequel to 1998’s original “Practical Magic,” the “Stockard Channing Show” star said she wasn’t sure she’d “do anything” after that.

“Acting is like everything in life; you never know what’s going to happen,” she quipped.

Channing admitted in a 2020 interview that “Practical Magic” has been a “favorite for a lot of people” over the years.

She also confessed that the working relationship with fellow icons Kidman and Bullock was “congenial” and “playful.”

“Both Nic and Sandy were enormously warm,” she recalled in an interview with Vulture at the time.

“Sandy is very, very funny and smart, and Nic was just lovely. It was a very, very congenial time, and all that coven-y thing of running around.”