Stefanie Powers Opens Up About ‘Chemistry’ with “Hart to Hart” Husband Robert Wagner (Exclusive)

Angela AndaloroFri, October 9, 2026 at 1:46 PM UTC

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Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers during ‘Hart to Hart’ (left) and todayCredit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty; Robert Wagner/Instagram -

Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers first crossed paths when she guest-starred on an episode of It Takes a Thief

Wagner tapped Powers to play his TV wife in Hart to Hart, which aired for five seasons from 1979 to 1984

Powers tells PEOPLE about the friendship they’ve maintained for years while also discussing her conservation work for the William Holden Wildlife Foundation

Stefanie Powers loves having a true bond with her on-screen husband.

The actress, 83, caught up with PEOPLE as she celebrated the news that she’d been named Ms. Wonderful 2026 by The Thalians. Looking back at her achievements in her career and in her activism, Powers shares that her story almost unfolded differently.

“While I was rehearsing a production of Cyrano de Bergerac that Stacy Keach and I were going to take to Broadway, and we were going to San Francisco to do our out-of-town opening, I got a phone call from Robert Wagner and Tom Mankiewicz and Aaron Spelling who said, ‘We’d like you to do the pilot for this television series called Hart to Hart,’ ” she told PEOPLE.

Wagner, now 96, had suggested Powers for the role of Jennifer Hart, wife of his character, Jonathan Hart, after working with her in an episode of It Takes a Thief.

Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart on ‘Hart to Hart’Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“We were both very much products of the old movie system, the studio system, so we understood the etiquette that we needed to maintain. We understood what the job was. We were very professional. There was no temperament. We came from the same school,” she shared.

“We not only were friends, but... it doesn’t always follow suit, that just because you’re friendly with someone that you’re going to have chemistry on the screen. We were just really, really lucky to have that chemistry and continue it throughout the years,” Powers continued.

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These days, the pair still “talk to each other quite often,” a bond for which she is grateful. “He’s like my brother. He’s a tremendous part of my life, and I love him dearly,” she shared.

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Of being The Thalians‘ Ms. Wonderful recipient this year, honored for her founding and continued work with the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, she shared, “It means a great deal to be honored by this wonderful organization because they are such an institution that is part of the industry that I’m so grateful to,” she noted. “I’m thrilled, happy, and I thank all of the ones I knew in their memory who are not with us anymore.”

Her passion for wildlife conservation is a continued driver in her career. “Wildlife conservation is not just an essential part of the mechanism that allows us to have life on this planet, but is unfortunately not in its greatest moment. It’s not getting support from the generations that should be supporting it. People all think of themselves as conservationists, but they don’t do anything about it,” Powers said.

“Most of us who work in wildlife conservation very heavily are rather disappointed with the young that we had hoped would be the standard-bearers of conservation going forward, and they don’t seem to be interested. I would think and hope that better hands than ours will take over and bring us to our senses about the life force that allows us to breathe on this planet,” she continued.

“The work itself is rewarding and continually interesting and we have great support where we are. But it’s the support behind the scenes, it’s the support from our own people, our own country and those who should be concerned about the future of their planet, that we’re not getting. It’s my hope that people will wake up. If they don’t do it, who will?” Powers concluded.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”