{"id":516362,"date":"2026-06-03T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/516362\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:15:12","slug":"felicity-kendal-on-three-year-grief-journey-after-death-of-partner-it-takes-over-every-aspect-of-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/516362\/","title":{"rendered":"Felicity Kendal on three-year grief journey after death of partner: \u2018It takes over every aspect of your life\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Felicity Kendal<\/a> has opened up about her journey with grief following the death of her partner, Michael Rudman, three years ago.<\/p>\n

Theatre director Rudman died, aged 84<\/a>, in April 2023, after a series of health problems, including a heart attack, bypass surgery, hospitalisation with Covid, and breaking his back. The director required full-time carers in his home in the last two years of his life.<\/p>\n

The Good Life star Kendal, 79, said that, instead of dwelling on her sadness, she attempts to focus on \u201cthe wonderful times rather than the sad\u201d and doesn\u2019t want to waste her time as \u201clife is so precious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"FelicityFelicity Kendal with her husband Michael Rudman during the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2004 (PA) (Getty)<\/p>\n

She said she has a support network, which she calls \u201cvery important\u201d, telling Prima Magazine of her grief: \u201cI mean it has been three years now, so it\u2019s moved from being really all-consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kendal continued: \u201cEven though you try not to show it, it sort of takes over every aspect of your life \u2013 missing that person that was part of your everyday. So the everyday changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor, who said Rudman \u201cwas so loved by everybody\u201d, said the first year of grief led to her asking: “What do I put in place because I\u2019m not the same person any more?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think, \u2018I\u2019m of less value because I\u2019ve only got half of me\u2019 and then you realise you have a chance now at another life and you have to have a different routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FelicityFelicity Kendal said grief is \u2018three-year journey\u2019 after partner\u2019s death in 2023 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

She said that, when her sister died, the thought that helped her was: \u201cshe\u2019s not here, so I better not waste this\u201d \u2013\u00a0and Kendal said she\u2019s having similar feelings about Rudman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what I\u2019m now feeling. And it\u2019s just about remembering the wonderful times rather than the sad times and that does happen. It\u2019s a three-year journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kendal married Rudman in 1983, but the pair divorced in 1991 following a series of marital problems. She began a relationship with playwright Tom Stoppard, but she reunited with Rudman eight years later. <\/p>\n

The couple never remarried but had lived together ever since. They have a 39-year-old son named Jacob.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Kendal said she \u201ccried a lot\u201d after Rudman\u2019s death, \u201cwhich is quite unlike me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone dies, it\u2019s like a boomerang,\u201d she told The Times. \u201cThe emotion is gone, out of sight, then whack \u2013 it hits you again. Unexpected things get me. Often, it is just people being nice or someone else dying. I am at an age when an awful lot of people are dying.\u201d <\/p>\n

The actor also said she \u201chates\u201d it when people say she\u2019s \u201clost\u201d her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as if you have lost the cat. I haven\u2019t lost Michael; he is dead. We are all at one point or another going to have to deal with similar things, so let\u2019s be open about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[86666,44618,434,223538,27125,14652,223537,18,4507,117,54439,3304,33137,127769,19,17,194882,223539,237,432,223536,57941,86069,1294,22026],"class_list":["post-516362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-arrival","tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","tag-celebrities","tag-central-london","tag-color-image","tag-critic","tag-curzon-mayfair","tag-eire","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-felicity-kendal","tag-film-industry","tag-film-premiere","tag-full-length","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-london-england","tag-matthew-kelly-actor","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-premiere-event","tag-red-carpet-event","tag-two-people","tag-uk","tag-vertical"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}