Winslet wracked with guilt over leaving sick lover
Titanic star Kate Winslet is still wracked with feelings of guilt over leaving her first love while he was battling fatal bone cancer.
The star was 15 when she met and fell in love with 28-year-old television writer Stephen Tredre.
She tells US publication Parade: "He was the most important person in my life, next to my family."
Shortly before she began filming Sense And Sensibility in 1994, Tredre was diagnosed with bone cancer.
She recalls: "There was no point to his suffering. No rhyme or reason to it. He lived healthfully. It always seemed impossible that this man could ever die."
The couple broke up in 1996 and Tredre died in 1997, the week Titanic opened and Winslet was forced to miss the film's Los Angeles premiere to attend his funeral.
She adds: "I was so young, when I look back on it. Only 19. How could I have left a person who was so unwell?
"I thought Stephen was going to be all right... It was unbelievably heartbreaking."
