Richard E Grant ‘no longer remembers final 8 months of his wife’s life’

Richard E. Grant shared a wonderful tribute to his wife on the fifth anniversary of her death, revealing he ‘no longer remembers the last eight months’ of her life. 

The Withnail and I actor married Joan Washington in 1986, and they were together 38 years before she died of cancer in 2021. 

The actor has continued to be open and frank about grief since Washington’s death, and in his latest post about her, Grant revealed he is able to forget the last months of her life and instead focus on the best memories.

He shared a gorgeous video from an episode of Nigel Slater’s A Taste of Your Life, in which Washington describes how the Oscar nominee likes his porridge. 

In the video, Grant is chuckling away and squirming at his wife as she reveals his eating habits. 

Alongside the clip, he wrote: ‘THANK YOU for ALL your compassionate messages on my late wife’s 5th Anniversary. 

‘The wonderful trick of memory is that I no longer remember her final 8 months, but rather her Life enhancing vibrancy and humour. 

‘Special thanks to @nigelslater for inviting me on A TASTE OF YOUR LIFE.’ 

Slater was among the many people flooding Grant with support, posting a string of love hearts in the replies.

Trudie Styler wrote: ‘Dearest Richard -thinking of you -and thanking you for sharing this lovely video of Joan looking wonderful and reminding us of her crackling wit- and fun.

‘I’m so happy to read you are emerging into the light and able to feel joy once more from your memories of your beautiful marriage to Joan.’ 

Designer Jasper Conran celebrated her ‘saucy, conspiratorial laugh’.

Grant, who is about to appear on the second series of Celebrity Traitors, recently revealed he cut friends out of his life following his wife’s death.

He claimed some pals avoided him to swerve awkward conversations, stressing that he will never forgive them. 

‘I’m very unequivocal, black and white, all or nothing,’ he said in an interview with The Times. 

‘I’ve tried to go for the grey areas but it’s not succeeded for very long. There are people that have been edited out of my life and I will never see them again.

If I had done that to them, I wouldn’t be able to look them in the face.’

‘No, portcullis down,’ he added. ‘Goodbye.’

He also shared that he still writes to Washington every night before bed and said he was still so far from even considering finding love again. 

‘I’ve not had any twinkles of that yet,’ he said.