British actor Richard E Grant spoke candidly about the loss of his beloved wife Joan Washington, who sadly died in September 2021 following a battle with stage four lung cancer.

Speaking on Davina McCall’s upcoming Begin Again podcast the Saltburn actor, 67, shared his late wife’s initial reluctance to disclose her cancer diagnosis due to fear of being defined by her illness.

The couple enjoyed 35 years of marriage and welcomed their daughter Olivia in 1989.

Opening up about his loss Richard revealed Joan’s heartbreaking last words as she shared a wish before her death.

He shared: “Two weeks before she died she said ‘I know the end is very near now, please let me go’ and my daughter and I said unequivocally ‘absolutely, yes, of course, you have our blessing.’”

Richard continued: “On the day that she died I was sitting talking to her all day… holding her hand and then I felt that at about ten past seven her hand was starting to get colder and thought ‘this must be the end’ and then at seven thirty, twenty minutes later, she died.

“So essentially a conversation that began in bed in January 1983, then stopped 38 years later on the 2nd of September 2021, still talking and still holding each other’s hands.

“To have had that with one human being and to be completely seen by someone else I think it’s the greatest gift that you can have – the greatest intimacy.”

Richard previously shared in the years following his wife’s death he has been set up on blind dates by his friends but isn’t looking to meet anyone.

The actor added he’s “certainly not internet dating”.

He also revealed that he still has Joan’s ashes and struggles with the idea of scattering them, despite her wish to be buried under a cherry tree. He also writes emails to Joan as a way to maintain the connection and process his grief.

Joan and Richard share one daughter, Olivia, who works as a casting director. He also wrote a memoir in 2022 based on his diaries from when his wife had cancer, which he named A Pocket Full of Happiness.

You can listen to the full interview on Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast