Richard E. Grant Recalls Late Wife's 'Last Breath' in Heartbreaking Message 5 Years After Her Death: 'We Were Holding Each Other's Hands'

Richard E. Grant is still grieving his wife, Joan Washington, five years after her death.

The actor, 69, spoke at length about his spouse's final moments as she drew her "last breath" when she passed away due to cancer in 2021.

In an emotional Instagram post, Grant recalled the bond the pair shared and how devastating the loss was and still is.

Grant's grief is just as strong now as it was when his wife passed away, though the actor is navigating it the best way he knows how: looking back on and appreciating the pair's relationship.

"Five years ago today, my beloved wife Joan died at 7:30 in the evening, and we were holding each other’s hands, and she drew her last breath,” he said. “And, in one sense, five years seems incredibly long and, simultaneously, the blink of an eye."

The actor previously told "Mad Sad Bad" podcast host Paloma Faith that he weeps every single day, sometimes from grief and sometimes from joy or even the news, but he's made peace with those tears rather than fighting them.

"I feel unbelievable gratitude that I had almost four decades with her, because more than anybody in the whole world that I've ever met, she got me. I got her, and that seems to be the kind of holy grail gift that I never anticipated I would find in my life. I sure did with her," he spilled.

Speaking to the camera in his latest Instagram tribute, he appeared calmer and more reflective while celebrating his wife's "fifth anniversary."

"Without sounding morbid, I want to celebrate her fifth anniversary,” Grant said as he ended the video. “Happy anniversary.”

Grant and Washington met in the early 1980s, when he was a little-known actor and she was a voice coach. He recalled hiring her to help him master an accent for a role, unable to afford her full rate, and how their professional relationship grew into a romance. The two married in 1986 and stayed together for 38 years.

Washington had her own distinguished career: She was one of Britain's leading dialect coaches, working with actors including Anne Hathaway, Vanessa Redgrave and Jessica Chastain. The couple shared a daughter, Olivia.

"Our daughter, you know, had a baby 12 weeks ago," Grant noted in his video. "I would love more than anything for her to have held our grandchild, but that’s not to be."

Though it's been years since losing his wife, Grant still isn't ready to seek out new love.

The grieving actor spoke briefly on the advice others have given to help him move on after his painful loss. People keep telling him, "with the best intentions," to try and meet someone new, but he mused that he simply has "not arrived at that station."

"Being in this cottage where she died, I’m surrounded by everything that we made together and collected," he reflected. "So, even though I’m totally physically alone here, her life is here as though she might be in the next room. In a sense, she is, and always will be."

Even amid his grief, Grant has said in the past that he's not lonely. He lives communally with his daughter and her husband, who moved into his home. He's described his family as a source of comfort.

Grant, an Oscar nominee for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, has continued to act and write in the years since Washington's death. Talking and writing about her keeps her alive for him in some way, and honoring her memory has become central to how he lives.