Richard E. Grant has admitted being unable to return to his holiday home after the death of his wife and with a ‘heavy heart’ has had to sell the property in Provence
Richard E. Grant has shared that it is “too painful” to return to his holiday home in France after the death of his wife, Joan Washington. The actor shared the house in Provence with his late wife and has had to sell it.
The 68-year-old was married to vocal coach Joan for 35 years, having met in 1986 and marrying the same year. The couple had one daughter together, Olivia. After a battle with cancer, Joan tragically died in 2021.
During their almost four decades together, Richard and Joan bought a farmhouse in Provence and renovated it together. They spent every summer there for 33 years but Richard has now admitted that he hasn’t been able to go back in the four years since his wife died.
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Writing for The Times about his travels, Richard said the place didn’t feel the same anymore. “‘I tried going back to Provence on my own after Joan died, but found it too painful. With a very heavy heart I sold the house.”
Earlier this year, Richard also opened up about his wife’s death. The Withnail And I actor revealed that he hadn’t considered moving on after his wife’s death, adding that it was “not looking for it” at the moment.
“The idea of being sixty-seven and three quarters and taking my kit off is so mortifying, I’d have to be in a Krakatoan cave without a crack of light,” he told The Sunday Times Culture magazine. “That may change. I’m hopeful-minded and open-hearted but I’m not looking for it.” He added that he does not feel lonely, as Olivia and her husband both live with him.
Over the years, Richard has been very candid about his grief. He shared beautiful memories of his wife on The Lulu Podcast, including one where she laid out all the women they knew that he could start a romance with after she died.
“She was hilarious – a month before she died, she went through all the women, the women who were either single, divorced or available or widowed, that we knew, and she basically went through all of them like a lioness and gave me a reason why I shouldn’t pursue any of them.”
About the likelihood that he would find love again, Richard said: “I have no expectation that I will fall in love again, which is not to say that it couldn’t or wouldn’t happen, I’m not there on a dating app trying to find it. I feel fulfilled and sustained without feeling like I’ve lost my better half, which I have.”
In fact, Richard is so in love with his late wife, that he still talks to her each night via emails. Richard said: “I have no woolly spiritual delusion that she’s hearing this, or that I’m going to get a response, but it somehow keeps the connection going.
“So I write to her, ‘Dear J, today would really have amused you…’, it makes it feel like that person is still there. It’s an ongoing conversation.”
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