The Odyssey’s Samantha Morton shares ‘trauma’ after sister dies aged 53

Samantha Morton has revealed that her older sister has died, just 18 months after her father.

The Odyssey actress, 49, explained that she’s still ‘dealing with coroners and trauma’ after her sibling died earlier this year.

Samantha is one of nine siblings and previously revealed how she spent much of her childhood in foster homes.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, the award-winning actress said: ‘My relationship with my past changes as I age and my children age, but things keep happening.

‘I sadly lost my sister on April 22 this year, she was 53.

‘I am still dealing with the coroners and the trauma. I lost my real father 18 months ago. Trauma. So the past is always with me and I’m not saying I’m not going to be all right next week, but every day I wake, say a prayer and say “Please help me”.’

Discussing her difficult upbringing, she said: ‘The past never leaves you.

‘It’s in your DNA, and trauma is a constant battle.’

Samantha was born to factory worker Pamela and coal miner Peter. Her mother experienced mental health complications, and her father was an alcoholic. 

‘Someone told me I was resilient when I was younger. But sometimes you’ve got no choice other than to be resilient because if you are not you’re dead,’ she recalled.

‘I went pillar to post with foster families, homeless hostels, sleeping by the bins at the back of the Co-op, because it was too dangerous to go back to the children’s home because of the abuse.’

She added: ‘I have made choices that have always been about survival, because I watched my mum trying to survive and I watched my dad trying to survive.’ 

She added that her earlier years helped in her portrayal of Circe in Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey.

‘These weren’t just words. I believe them as Sam, not just Circe,’ she explained.

‘And when I opened my mouth, I was every woman. I was speaking for my mother, who suffered all sorts at the hands of men. And my sister, friends, grandmother. It was all the wrongs and ways that women have been depicted or treated forever.’

Samantha, who is a mother to three children, Esmé Creed-Miles with actor Charlie Creed-Miles, and her younger children Edie and Theodore with filmmaker Harry Holm, previously revealed how she was ‘saved’ by acting.

In an emotional acceptance speech in 2024 she dedicated her Bafta Fellowship ‘to every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn’t survive’.