Eight months after the death of her beloved sister, Joely Richardson has finally spoken out about the tragedy, revealing how she threw herself into work to cope with the loss of her “soul mate”. Joely’s older sister Natasha, an acclaimed actress, loving wife, sister and mother, died as a result of a skiing accident in Canada in March.
“We were such opposites,” says Joely, of her close relationship with Natasha (45), “but completely enmeshed in each other. I hadn’t lived a day of my life without her. You worry about your children and your elders, but I never imagined such a thing as this. Tash was a given to me.”
Joely (45) was back on set filming BBC TV show The Day of the Triffids the day after her sister’s funeral – and in a cruel twist of fate, her first day back saw her dealing with an onscreen death. “A strange autopilot kicks in – your psyche puts your work day into a whole different compartment to your private life. I’m not kidding – my first shot back on set was reacting to someone dying.”
Joely recalls the moment she realised her sister had passed away. “The shock shatters you on a cellular level. It takes time for the pieces to come back together, albeit in a different formation.” Natasha died while on holiday with her children, falling and hitting her head during a skiing lesson on the beginner’s slope at the Mont Tremblant Resort and sustaining a fatal head injury. Her husband, actor Liam Neeson (47), flew her to a hospital near their New York home, where she sadly died on 18 March.
Nip/Tuck star Joely reveals that she and her sister were always exceptionally close despite being “chalk and cheese”. She says they each reveled in their bohemian childhood with unconventional parents, actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson.
“We lived in this tiny two-up, two-down house. My mother’s politics were such that she gave everything away. We had a rota – one would do the shopping, one would do the cooking and one would do the washing up. “So much of what I am is who Tasha was and I think, sharing all those formative years, there is level of merging. I cannot imagine there will ever be a day I don’t think of Tasha.”
Now, after a year filled with unbelievable grief, Joely has told US magazine Tatler that she is finally in the mood “for a big travel somewhere”. She is also about to move to New York with daughter Daisy for two months to be closer to Natasha’s sons, Michel (14) and Daniel (13). When asked if she is coming to terms with Natasha’s death, Joely says she isn’t sure whether she ever will.
“I don’t look at happiness as being a great goal. A sense of peace, definitely, but it’s like the seasons. I think we’re meant to have a spring, summer, autumn and winter. “I’m not looking for a perpetual summer because that would be a flat line.”
