Richard E. Grant announces death of his mum as he reflects on their 'complicated relationship'
dailyrecord.co.ukLegendary actor Richard E. Grant has announced his mother Leonne Esterhuysen has passed away at the age of 93. The Withnail and I star made the announcement on a video he posted to Twitter as he paid tribute to the woman who gave him the "gift of life".
The Oscar nominated actor, 66, also reflected on their "incredibly complicated relationship".The post was captioned: "Complicated gratitude to my Mother, who died this morning at the age of 93, for giving me the Gift of Life." He said:"I saw that I had eight missed calls from Africa and knew immediately why, which proved to be that my 93-year-old mother died this morning."We had an incredibly complicated relationship, and she’ll be somebody that was, for me anyway, emotionally withdrawn, and withheld her approbation or approval of anything, so nothing was quite good enough."What that proved to be is a great motor for ambition and determination to try and prove yourself, and be the best that you possibly can, and yet, ironically, whatever she did, she demanded and got applause and approval from everybody around her, including me."Richard lost his wife Joan Washington to cancer in 2021.
The star married dialect coach Joan, Joan, from Aberdeen, in 1986. She was a voice coach to celebrities including Penelope Cruz and Jessica Chastain before she died in September last year aged 74.
She had a young son called Tom from a previous relationship who Grant remains close to, in 1986 and they would go on to have daughter Olivia together, who is now 34.
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