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Richard E Grant has revealed his mother Leonne Esterhuysen has died aged 93.
The 66-year-old actor shared the news of her death in a Twitter video, where he reflected on their ‘complicated’ relationship.
He captioned his post: ‘Complicated gratitude to my Mother, who died this morning at the age of 93, for giving me the Gift of Life.’
In the video, Richard said his mother had passed away in Africa while he was filming, and described her as ’emotionally withdrawn’.
He added that she ‘withheld her approval of anything’ and he felt ‘resignation’ after her death, but ended his reflection by sharing his gratitude she ‘gave him life’.
Sad news: Richard E Grant has revealed his mother Leonne Esterhuysen has died at the age of 93, reflecting on their ‘complicated relationship’ in a video shared with his Twitter followers on Thursday
Insight: The actor, who described his mother as ‘untactile’ said he felt ‘resignation’ about her death, sharing his gratitude she ‘gave him life’ (pictured with his mother, right and daughter Olivia)
Richard told his followers: ‘During a filming break this morning I saw that I had eight missed calls from Africa and knew weirdly why, which proved to be that my 93-year-old mother died this morning.
‘We had an incredible complicated relationship, and she was somebody that for me anyway, emotionally withdrawn, withheld her approval of anything.
‘So nothing was ever quite good enough, but what that proved to be was a great motor for ambition and determination to try and prove yourself be the best you possible can, and ironically whatever she demanded she got.
‘Applause, approval from everybody around her, including me.
‘I went to stay with her for a couple of weeks, six weeks after my wife had died, with Covid restrictions being lifted, and she sent me a very terse email at the end of the trip, saying ”I regret to say your visit was an absolute disaster, we only have two things in common, books and classical music.”
‘She was very physically untactile, I’ve gone the opposite extreme, and been a very tactile and loving father and husband in response to that.
‘Do I feel sadness that she has died? I feel resignation more than anything. But most of all gratitude for having given me life.’
Grant had a complicated relationship with his parents, having witnessed his mother have an affair and his father then spiral into alcoholism.
Last year, Grant revealed that as a child he accidentally witnessed his mother and her secret lover together, and his parents’ marriage broke down years later.
Speaking on Desert Island Discs, he said: ‘I inadvertently witnessed my mother bonking my father’s best friend on the front seat of a car late one evening.
‘We were coming back from a cricket match and I was obviously asleep on the back seat and then woke up to the rhythmic movements of the car, which is something that you can well imagine!
‘I tried God and got no response. I obviously couldn’t tell my father or my mother or my friends, so to try to understand what had happened I started keeping a diary.
‘And it’s continued to be something I’ve done every day to make sense of the world that I live in.’
Reflection: He captioned his post: ‘Complicated gratitude to my Mother, who died this morning at the age of 93, for giving me the Gift of Life’
Words: ‘She was very physically untactile, I’ve gone the opposite extreme, and been a very tactile and loving father and husband in response to that,’ he said
Subsequently he watched his father slip into alcoholic despair, and then was brutalised by him.
‘It was traumatic, but I think if you’re optimistic by nature that’s something you don’t have any control over,’ he told the Daily Mail in 2014.
So I never thought I was going to go under. I think it’s enormously lucky to have that in your life.’
Discussing his father’s alcoholism years before, he told the Daily Mail in 2007: ‘There was a lot of pressure on me,” Grant recollects, his expression becoming troubled as if a ghost has flitted past.
‘I ended up parenting my parent, so I was forced to grow up before my time.’
One night, his father tried to shoot him.
‘The bullet whistled past my head. Luckily, he then passed out. He didn’t remember it the next day.’
Hendrik died of cancer in 1981.
Richard and his mother were estranged for many years before reconciling.
It comes after the Star Wars actor revealed earlier this month that after the death of his wife of 30 years Joan Washington, he was placing their idyllic farmhouse in the South of France on the market.
Joan, a renowned dialect coach died after a battle with cancer in September 2021 aged 74.
Grant wrote on social media: ‘Heart sore to sell Le Pigeonnier in Provence after 30 Summers. Sleeps 7. Pool, badminton, olive and fruit trees.’
Last year Grant spoke of his sadness at returning to the property to sort through Ms Washington’s belongings.
He said: ‘Thirty-three years ago my wife and I bought a little house here in the South of France when my daughter was just six weeks old, and it’s very emotional being here having to sort through her clothes and deal with other things.
The family would visit the home with their daughter Olivia, 34, and Grant’s stepson Tom, from Ms Washington’s previous relationship.
Announcing her death, Grant said alongside a video of him and his wife dancing: ‘Our hearts are broken with the loss of your Life last night.
’35 years married & 38 together. To be truly known and seen by you, is your immeasurable gift. Do not forget us, sweet Monkee-mine.’
Speaking to Radio Times about her passing, he said: ‘The hardest part is in the evening, when I can’t FaceTime Joan and tell her about the minutiae of my day.
‘I have an ongoing conversation with her in my head, knowing there will be no reciprocity.’
Grant told how he misses his wife more around the winter period during Christmas and their wedding anniversary in November.
He said: ‘Our wedding anniversary is on 1 November; Joan’s birthday is on 21 December; there’s Christmas Day and then Oilly’s [his nickname for his daughter Olivia] birthday is 4 January.
‘Last year, Oilly and her partner Florian very generously invited me to Venice and then to visit his family in the south of Austria, which was absolutely magical.
‘This year I’m going with the two of them to the Caribbean, so that I’m not in London at Christmas.’
The pair had overcome tragedy in their life and spoke publicly about how their first child together sadly died after just half an hour.
Joan had suffered multiple miscarriages but had been determined they would keep trying after seeing how good her husband had been with her son from a previous relationship Tom.
Then in 1989 she fell pregnant with daughter Olivia after telling him ‘Fatherhood suits you. You’re very good at it’.
Washington, from Aberdeen, trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and had nearly 40 years’ experience in the film industry as a voice and dialect coach, working with stars including Anne Hathaway, Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Stone.
Among her early projects in the mid-80s were Yentl starring Barbra Streisand, Highlander, and The Bounty, featuring Mel Gibson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Recent years saw her work on features such as The Witches, where she coached Hathaway for the part of the Grand High Witch, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy The Favourite, where she worked with Stone.
In a joint interview with the Independent in 2011, Grant recalled them meeting for the first time.
He said: ‘I met her at the Actors’ Centre in London. She was wearing a boiler suit and had fairly short, cropped hair and Kicker shoes, and was chain-smoking, which I thought was insane.
‘She was teaching an accent session with a bunch of actors, and I thought she had the most wonderful voice and huge, sort of monkey eyes. She seemed fairly frenetic.
‘I thought that she was really cute and all that. It was December 1982.’
The actor has previously admitted he had not considered getting married until he had met her.
Throwback: Richard is pictured at the age of five in 1962
Parents: Grant’s mother Leonne is pictured alongside husband Henrik Esterhuysen
Looking back: Richard previously revealed that as a child he accidentally witnessed his mother and her secret lover together, and his parents’ marriage broke down years later (pictured aged seven)
Heartbreaking: Richard’s wife Joan Washington, a vocal coach, died in September 2021 just eight months after being diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer.
Speaking in an interview with The Independent, he explained: ‘I’d never really thought about getting married, didn’t think it was necessary.
‘Joan had been married, and she had staunchly said to me that she didn’t want to get married again, and so we’d never talked about it.’
It wasn’t until the couple spent six weeks apart when Richard returned to his family home in southern Africa for a Christmas break that he realised marriage was the ultimate commitment.
The star proposed immediately upon his return and Joan happily accepted, with the couple going on to set up home together in Richmond, south-west London.
Richard added: ‘Before I got married, I didn’t hold any store by it.
‘My parents were divorced when I was 11 and it made such a profound impression on my life that I suppose I thought that by not getting married, you could avoid your life being carved in two. But that changed.’
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