Editing Shirley Williams (section)

== Personal life ==
Williams married twice. At Oxford she met [[Peter Parker (British businessman)|Peter Parker]] (the future head of [[British Rail]]) and they had a relationship. In her autobiography (''Climbing the Bookshelves'') Williams said that "...by the spring of 1949 I was in love with him, and he, a little, with me...". In 1955, she married the moral philosopher [[Bernard Williams]]. Bernard left Oxford to accommodate his wife's rising political ambitions, finding a post first at [[University College London]] (1959–64) and then as Professor of Philosophy at [[Bedford College, London|Bedford College]], London (1964–67), while she worked as a journalist for the ''Financial Times'' and as Secretary of the Fabian Society. The marriage was dissolved in 1974;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zo5AAAAAIBAJ&pg=1629%2C1102729 |title=Mrs Williams agrees to divorce |work=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=4 May 1974 |page=11 |access-date=3 January 2017}}</ref> Bernard Williams subsequently married Patricia Skinner and had two sons with her.<ref name=Jeffries>Jeffries, Stuart. [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,850062,00.html "The Quest for Truth"] ''The Guardian'', 30 November 2002.</ref> Shirley said of her marriage to Bernard:

<blockquote>...&nbsp;[T]here was something of a strain that comes from two things. One is that we were both too caught up in what we were respectively doing — we didn't spend all that much time together; the other, to be completely honest, is that I'm fairly unjudgmental and I found Bernard's capacity for pretty sharp putting-down of people he thought were stupid unacceptable. Patricia has been cleverer than me in that respect. She just rides it. He can be very painful sometimes. He can eviscerate somebody. Those who are left behind are, as it were, dead personalities. Judge not that ye be not judged. I was influenced by Christian thinking, and he would say "That's frightfully pompous and it's not really the point." So we had a certain jarring over that and over Catholicism.<ref name=Jeffries /></blockquote>

Her first marriage was [[annulled]] in 1980.<ref name="TelObit"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jeffries |first1=Stuart |title=The quest for truth |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/nov/30/academicexperts.highereducation |website=Guardian Books |access-date=12 April 2021 |date=30 November 2002 |quote="After the divorce in 1974, Bernard married Patricia, but Shirley Williams had to wait for the Catholic church to annul the marriage before she could remarry."}}</ref> In 1987 she married the Harvard professor and presidential historian [[Richard Neustadt]], who died in 2003.

She had a daughter with Bernard Williams, a stepdaughter, and two grandchildren. Her daughter, Rebecca, became a lawyer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/15/shirley-williams-my-family-values|title=Shirley Williams: My family values|first=Tony|last=Padman|date=15 May 2015|website=The Guardian}}</ref> She was a longtime resident of Hertfordshire, living in [[Furneux Pelham]] after she was elected MP for Hitchin, and moving to [[Little Hadham]], [[Hertfordshire]] in later in life.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/gang-of-four-rebel-and-east-herts-villager-shirley-williams-9195196/|title = Political pioneer and Little Hadham resident Shirley Williams dies aged 90|last = Corr|first = Sinead|date = 12 April 2021|accessdate = 29 January 2023|newspaper = Bishop's Stortford Independent}}</ref>

Williams was a [[Catholic Church in England and Wales|Roman Catholic]] and, from 2009, attended church every Sunday.<ref>{{cite book| last=Williams | first=Shirley | year=2009 | title=Climbing the bookshelves | edition=1st |page=294| publisher=Virago | isbn=978-1-84408-476-0}}</ref> In [[Who's Who (UK)|''Who's Who'']], she listed her recreations as "music, poetry, hill walking".<ref name=":0" />

She died at her home in the early hours of 12 April 2021, at the age of 90.<ref name="LibDemsAnnounceDeath">{{cite web |author1=Liberal Democrats |title=In Memory of Shirley Williams |url=https://www.libdems.org.uk/in-memory-of-shirley-williams |website=LibDems.org.uk |access-date=1 June 2022 |date=12 April 2021}}</ref><ref name="BBCDeath">{{Cite news|date=12 April 2021|title=Baroness Shirley Williams: Former cabinet minister dies aged 90|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-56720985|access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/world/europe/shirley-williams-dead.html|title = Shirley Williams, 90, Force Who Altered British Politics And Inspired Lawmakers|date = 23 April 2021|accessdate = 29 January 2023|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|page = B11|url-access = limited|last = Kwai|first = Isabella}}</ref> Liberal Democrat leader [[Ed Davey]] called Williams a "Liberal lion and a true trailblazer" and stated that "political life will be poorer without her intellect, her wisdom and her generosity".<ref name="BBCDeath" />