Entertainment
Richard E Grant remembers late wife Joan on Desert Island Discs: ‘All of that time together was an extraordinary gift’-Rebecca Sayce-Entertainment – Metro
The star had an emotional chat on the show.
The actor said music had been a great emotional support in the face of losing his wife (Picture: PA)
Richard E Grant has said ignoring the fact that a loved one has died makes it feel ‘like that person’s life didn’t count’, as he described facing the loss of his wife.
Grant married Joan Washington in 1986, shortly after he had moved to London from Swaziland (now Eswatini) to pursue a career in acting.
Washington was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2020 and told that she had 12 to 18 months to live, though died after eight in September 2021.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he said music had been an emotional support for him through his grief and was key to ‘the fantasy of finding that person you loved’.
The Oscar-nominated actor said that the Covid lockdown had given him the ‘extraordinary gift’ of time with his wife.
‘Because of the nature of my job, you never know what you’re going to be doing next, so there’s always this low-level hum of anxiety,’ he told host Lauren Laverne.
The couple married in 1986 and were together until Joan’s death in 2020 (Picture: Dave M. Benett / Getty Images)
‘So between Covid where everything stopped… all of that time together was an extraordinary gift.
‘It meant that you had to live in the moment as much as possible rather than trying to project into the future.’
He said that his wife had been determined that no one should know about her diagnosis, but that he and their daughter had persuaded her to tell people because it was ‘too much of a burden’.
The Withnail and I star revealed his wife was ‘astonished’ by the support she and her family received, and that celebrity chef Nigella Lawson sent food she prepared to them every Sunday.
The star said ignoring the fact that a loved one has died makes it feel like that person’s life didn’t count (Picture: PA)
Asked how he thought people should react to those grieving or taking care of an ill loved one, he said: ‘Don’t ignore the fact that that person is either ill or has died because if you ignore it it feels like that person’s life didn’t count or didn’t register.
‘That feels more hurtful and I find it difficult not to be judgemental towards people who flatly react as though it never happened.’
One of Grant’s song choices was an Eva Cassidy cover of Field’s Of Gold by Sting, saying it ‘never fails to reduce me’.
The full interview on Desert Island Discs is available on BBC Sounds.
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