Richard E Grant is a “Christmas-a-holic, unashamedly so”. He put up his tree, as always, on December 1 – a real one, “the scent is so beautiful” – and thinks that having your house brightly decorated in the middle of winter is “a fantastic tradition. I will never give that up.” Three years ago, on Christmas Eve, the love of his life, the dialect coach Joan Washington, his wife and partner of 38 years, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in September 2021. This time of year, though, remains tied to all the memories that the actor shared with Washington and their daughter Olivia – Oilly – as a family.
Oilly arrived in 1989, three years after their first daughter, Tiffany, was born too premature to survive. Since Oilly was a baby, Grant tells me from his London home, “we’ve had pictures of her every year until she was 18 in little cut-outs as Christmas decorations on the tree. Her whole life is on that tree. And the three Christmases without Joan, I’ve also put pictures of our lives together on the tree. She might not physically be here, but her spirit and the things that we did together, and we cooked together, are visible and tangible.”
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***The Telegraph writes***
Richard E Grant is a “Christmas-a-holic, unashamedly so”. He put up his tree, as always, on December 1 – a real one, “the scent is so beautiful” – and thinks that having your house brightly decorated in the middle of winter is “a fantastic tradition. I will never give that up.” Three years ago, on Christmas Eve, the love of his life, the dialect coach Joan Washington, his wife and partner of 38 years, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in September 2021. This time of year, though, remains tied to all the memories that the actor shared with Washington and their daughter Olivia – Oilly – as a family.
Oilly arrived in 1989, three years after their first daughter, Tiffany, was born too premature to survive. Since Oilly was a baby, Grant tells me from his London home, “we’ve had pictures of her every year until she was 18 in little cut-outs as Christmas decorations on the tree. Her whole life is on that tree. And the three Christmases without Joan, I’ve also put pictures of our lives together on the tree. She might not physically be here, but her spirit and the things that we did together, and we cooked together, are visible and tangible.”
**Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2023/12/23/richard-e-grant-interview-christmas-wife-joan-washington/**
I sincerely hope he’s as nice as he seems and that he and his family find joy.
He might not know the best way to get a head in advertising, but he sure got ahead in life.
“Withnail, you badtard!”
That’s a sad and beautiful story.