Martha Hart - Personal Life

Personal Life

Hart was born Martha Joan Patterson in 1966, and is the youngest of 11 children. Her mother, Joan, had battled breast cancer before Hart and her sister Virginia were born; her father left her mother when Martha was young. She has completed two degrees at the University of Calgary in Psychology (with distinction) and Sociology (1st class honors) before moving to England to complete a Masters degree in Social and Development Psychology at Cambridge University, and as of 2011, has now completed her PhD there. She met her husband, Owen Hart, in 1982, while they were both still in high school. She attended a Stampede Wrestling event with a friend, and met Owen after recognizing him as one of the wrestlers who attended her school for a wrestling practice. She later stated that it was love at first sight and their relationship was a dream come true. They married on July 1, 1989, and had two children together: Oje Edward Hart (born March 5, 1992) and Athena Christie/Christy Hart (born September 23, 1995). Owen died while performing a stunt on May 23, 1999 at the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)'s Over the Edge pay-per-view. As a result of the vast charitable contributions achieved through the good works of the Owen Hart Foundation, Martha was named Individual Philanthropist of the Year in 2004 by the AFP. She was Calgary's 2011 Champions of Learning.