“He Pulled The Trigger”: Richard E. Grant Just Recalled The Terrifying Time His Dad Tried To Shoot Him When He Was 15 Years Old
He said: “My memory of him is so much more than remembering that part of him, because I knew that that was something that was entirely brought about by addiction rather than the man that I absolutely worshipped and loved.”
On the other hand, Richard acknowledged having an “incredibly complicated relationship” with his mom after she died at 93 in 2023. He said in a video that was posted to X at the time: “She was somebody that was, for me anyway, emotionally withdrawn, and withheld her approbation or approval of anything, so nothing was quite good enough.”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,” Richard went on. “And yet, ironically, whatever she did, she demanded and got applause and approval from everybody around her, including me.”
Richard then revealed that after years of estrangement, he spent time with his mom after his wife passed away in 2021, but it did not go well. He said: “I went to stay with her for a couple of weeks, six weeks after my wife had died, with Covid restrictions being lifted, and she sent me a very terse email at the end of the trip, saying ‘I regret to say all of this was an absolute disaster. We only have two things in common, books and classical music.'”
“Do I feel sadness that she has died? I feel resignation more than anything, but most of all gratitude, for having given me life,” he concluded.
Richard — who has a dual British and Swazi nationality — moved to the UK from Eswatini in 1982, one year after his father’s death, and got his big acting break in the 1987 movie Withnail and I.
