Wonder Woman Star Lynda Carter Is Still Struggling with Grief 3 Years After Husband’s Shocking Death (Exclusive)

For Lynda Carter, the pain of losing her husband Robert Altman to a rare blood cancer in 2021 will never truly go away.

“He was the great love of my life,” she tells PEOPLE of Altman, a lawyer and video game executive whom she married in 1984 and with whom she raised two children. “I think about him every day. So much of the day I find myself thinking, ‘Oh, Robert will know.’ Or if I’m on a flight, I still expect them to send a text asking, “Are you sure you’ve landed? Was everything okay?'”

Carter, 72, is now paying tribute to Altman with a song she wrote for him called “Letters From Earth.” She says people are still surprised when they find out she’s a singer, even though she actually did it before she became famous as a presenter Wonderful woman when the show started in 1976.

“I’ve been singing for more than 50 years,” he says with a laugh. “I started singing in clubs when I was 14, and I wrote music before I became an actor.”

Lynda Carter on why she left Hollywood: ‘I didn’t have much content in my life’

Lynda Carter’s new single, Letters from Earth, is a tribute to her late husband.

“Letters from Earth,” she says, are a love letter to those we have lost.

“The soul of the song is about how you miss someone so much, because they are so present in your life that it is almost impossible to imagine that you will not physically see them again in this life,” she explains. “You wonder, ‘How can I communicate with you? Where are you? You didn’t just die – there are too many of you left on this earth, too many people who love you.'”

She adds: “These letters are almost a prayer to your loved one. We hope people understand that. It’s a celebration of love, however heartbreaking.”

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Since Altman’s death, Carter has partnered with City of Hope to help fund critical research into complicated blood cancers like the one from which Altman died. He was first diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a malfunction of cells in the bone marrow, which transformed into secondary myeloid leukemia, for which treatment options are limited.

“I’m so excited about all the progress that’s been made,” she tells PEOPLE of the recent scientific breakthroughs.

Lynda Carter and Robert Altman. Vivien Killilea/Getty

Carter says that writing music, spending time with her family and doing charity work keep her busy, but she still really misses her life partner.

“My life was an adventure with him,” she says. “We were always traveling and doing fun things, and then when you’re alone, you have to do everything alone. And that’s not fun.”

She adds: “Of course I have very good girlfriends. And children [daughter Jessica, 33 and son James, 35] are wonderful. They also had a wonderful relationship with him and we talk about him all the time.”

Lynda Carter says daughter Jessica planned the wedding herself: ‘She did everything herself’

She says her love affair with her husband worked because Altman “kicked me out.”

“He was a very calm, great, kind of level-headed person and he liked my personality and the things I came up with. It was an interesting life together,” she recalls. “We did fun things and we laughed and laughed. We had kids, wonderful friends. We went through some serious things, but life was an adventure with him.”

She adds, “Of course, remembering them keeps your love alive. But it’s still a mystery when you look up at the sky and wonder, ‘Where did you go?'”

For more on Lynda Carter, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday or subscribe here.

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Source: HIS Education