Richard E Grant has spoken about a couple that he and his late wife were friends, who ‘disappeared’ after she died.
The actor revealed to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that they knew the couple in question, but wouldn’t share who they were.
Last year, the Persuasion star suffered the loss of his wife Joan Washington, who died at the age of 71, having been married for almost 35 years.
Earlier this month, Richard, 65, shared a sweet video of himself dancing with Joan to mark one year since her death, writing in the caption: ‘Still cannot compute that my beloved wife, Joan, mother of our daughter @OliviaGranted, died a year ago, this evening. Holding each other’s hands until her final earthly breath. Forever dancing in my heart.’
On Thursday’s This Morning, the actor joined Holly and Phillip in the ITV studio to talk about his book A Pocketful of Happiness, which was inspired by his wife’s insistence for him and his daughter to find a ‘pocketful of happiness’ every day when she was gone.
Holly, 41, told Richard that one part of the book that she found interesting was how he wrote about the way death impacts friendships, highlighting what types of friends people may be.
Speaking about his personal experience, the Loki star replied: ‘Some people obviously can’t cope with it. Other people who you think are going to stand by you – and you know this couple, I’m not going to say who they are.
‘But you know, we’d been on holiday with them, shared 25 years of our lives together and they literally disappeared.’
Richard added that it wasn’t ‘that you’re not friends with them’, but that ‘you find out what kind of friends they actually are’.
‘But that is in the minority of 1%. The majority of people are extraordinary,’ he added.
Phillip, 60, then brought up Richard’s close friend Nigella Lawson, who sent food parcels to the actor’s home on a weekly basis.
‘Nigella sent food every Sunday afternoon in a cab, which kept us going for three days, which was incredibly generous,’ Richard shared, beaming as he recounted Nigella’s kindness.
The Academy Award nominee also outlined one of the most ‘hurtful’ things that people can do when someone has suffered a loss of a loved one, emphasising how much it means to still speak about the person one has lost.
‘People have asked me what’s the thing that you want the most while somebody is ill or once they’ve died. Not mentioning the person feels as though you’re cancelling them out, so they never existed. So that is the most hurtful,’ he said.
‘I think sometimes people feel that if I talk about it, you’re going to turn into a wobbling jelly. And sometimes you may do. But talking about it keeps the person alive in some way.’
Richard recently disclosed that friends of his have tried to matchmake him, but he isn’t ready to date yet.
‘It’s not something I could even conceive of at this point,’ he told The Guardian.
‘It’s still too raw and present, and I am still having an ongoing conversation with my wife in my head.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.
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