He had almost 15 years with the "radiant" woman of his dreams, who unfortunately passed away in an accident.
Losing a loving partner can be one of the most difficult and heartbreaking experiences an adult goes through. No matter how many years we are married to the person we love, it's not long enough. We wish to enjoy their warmth and goodness every day until the end of our lives.
But for some people, if death cuts short their time together out of the blue, the pain can be too much to handle.
Actor Liam Neeson played the role of a grieving husband on screen in the 2003 film Love, Actually. He loses his wife in the movie, and six years later, the reel life tragedy turned real. The Taken actor was married to actress Natasha Richardson, the daughter of famed British actress Vanessa Redgrave. Neeson and Richardson met while starring opposite each other in Anna Christie on Broadway in 1993.
The Parent Trap actress was 29 then and married to producer Robert Fox. Her marriage was on its last thread, just around the time Neeson entered her life, which led to rumors.
"She was a radiant beauty. Yeah, cascading hair. I remember. There was—that was very, very attractive. I'd never had that kind of an explosive chemistry situation with an actor, or actress," Neeson told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. "We had just this wonderful kind of dance—free dance on stage every night. She and I were like [Fred] Astaire and [Ginger] Rogers."
From the very first moment, there was an electrifying, almost palpable vibe between them. They tried to ignore the attraction they felt for each other, but they couldn't deny it for long. He had sent her a note on her birthday and Richardson wrote back saying, "This is like a letter from a buddy. What is our relationship?" It was that moment when it hit home for the Star Wars actor. "That was when I knew I really loved this person," Neeson recalled in his 60 Minutes interview. "I thought, ‘This is real and genuine and is something that has to be protected.’”
They got married in 1994 and were together until 2009 when their life together came to a sudden halt. She had a fatal fall in Quebec, Canada, while she skiing with her oldest son, Micheal. She was going down a slope meant for beginners on Mont Tremblant when she fell. Unfortunately, she wasn't wearing a helmet. Because she felt fine right after the fall she didn't realize how serious the impact was. While an ambulance was called for her, she turned down any medical care. Meanwhile, Neeson had been in Toronto shooting for the movie Chloe. "I spoke to her and she said, 'Oh, darling. I've taken a tumble in the snow.' That's how she described it," he said.
When she later reached her hotel though, she knew something was amiss. She was immediately flown to a hospital in Montreal. Neeson left his Toronto shooting as soon as he heard that her condition was critical and reached Montreal. When he reached the hospital, he was shown an X-ray of the brain injury, which the Schindler's List act describes as her brain being “squashed up against the side of the skull," as per PEOPLE.
"I was told she was brain dead. And seeing this X-ray it was, like, ‘Wow,’ ” he admitted. “But obviously she was on life support and stuff." There was nothing to do but say goodbye then. "And I went in to her and told her I loved her. Said, ‘Sweetie, you’re not coming back from this. You’ve banged your head. It’s – I don’t know if you can hear me, but that’s – this is what’s gone down. And we’re bringing ya back to New York. All your family and friends will come.’ And that was more or less it," he said.
The Nell star was then flown to New York, where her friends and family said their goodbyes to her. Then came the hard part. Her last wish was something the two of them had agreed on previously. They had a pact that if either of them were to end up in a vegetative state, the other would "pull the plug" instead of letting them suffer like that.
This was the hardest thing he had to do in his life. But he did it to honor her wish. The White Countess actress was an organ donor and her heart, kidneys, and liver are "keeping three people alive." Neeson who had earlier described his wife as "motherly" explained how she would be happy to know that her organs are helping others live a healthy life. He recounted, "I think she would be very thrilled and pleased by that too, actually."
Richardson was survived by her two sons, Micheál Richardson and Daniel Neeson, who were 13 and 12 then. The A-Team actor hasn't remarried since the death of his wife 11 years ago.
References:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/liam-neeson-on-natasha-richardson-death-and-hollywood-success/
https://people.com/movies/natasha-richardson-55-today-how-liam-neeson-coped/
