SEA OF LIES

Finally, the truth about Natalie Wood's drowning

- 

MORE than four decades after Natalie Wood's death, her former husband, screen legend Robert Wagner, has disappeared from public life. The 95-year-old actor is holed up at his Colorado home, drowning in guilt and battling a devastating health crisis, sources tell GLOBE.

As the star fights for his life, the burning question remains: Will Wagner finally come clean on his deathbed and confess to what really happened the night Natalie vanished at sea?

“It’s a tragedy, given he was quite the star in his day, but Natalie’s death is likely all anyone will ever remember Wagner for if he doesn’t clear the air,” says one Hollywood insider. “He will almost certainly make a deathbed confession.”

The Killer by Night star has lived most of the second half of his life under a veil of suspicion since the beloved West Side Story starlet drowned at the age of 43 on Nov. 28, 1981.

Sources say Wagner (who denies all allegations of any wrongdoing) has escaped Hollywood to avoid the heightened mystery over Natalie’s death, giving no definitive answers about what really happened that fatal Thanksgiving weekend.

Natalie and Wagner — known as R.J. to friends — had spent the weekend on their yacht, Splendour, with her Brainstorm costar Christopher Walken.

Sometime in the late hours of Nov. 28 and the early minutes of Nov. 29, Natalie vanished.