Twelve years to the date, Liam Neeson‘s eldest son Micheál Richardson is breaking his silence over the tragic passing of his mother, Natasha Richardson. The freak accident was devastating not just for Neeson but left their two sons heartbroken and monumentally affected by the loss. In an interview with HELLO! magazine, Richardson, who was just 14 at the time, spoke in-depth about losing his mother while admitting his wishes of having more time with her.
“It was so sudden. When it’s unexpected and it’s just a complete freak accident, it really sort of messes with your mind, whether you believe in fate or not,” Richardson said. “It can send you for a bit of a head spin, and so you just latch on to the tiny little memories, whether it’s her laugh or her energy in the room or her cooking. I do have her films to go back and watch her in, which I’m incredibly grateful for.”
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The now 25-year-old, who elected to change his surname in 2018 to pay his respects to his mother, went on to lovingly add how she was a “terrific mother” and he pines for the possibilities of discussions they could have had as he grew up. “What I wish is I could have just these adult conversations with her, these random questions about the industry or music,” he said. “I was a mama’s boy growing up, and she was really my best friend. I mean we were all a close family, but Danny [his younger brother] was my dad’s boy and I was my mom’s boy, for sure.”
On March 17, 2009, ABC News reported that Natasha, 45, had died of an epidural hematoma after a skiing accident at a Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, Canada. Despite her initially appearing fine and even joking about the fall, autopsy results showed the actress passed away from blunt impact to the head. A resort spokesperson noted that while Richardson was not wearing a helmet amid her skiing lesson, she did not collide with anything when she fell. Following her death, officials considered making helmets mandatory on all ski slopes. However, an update today shows Mont Tremblant has made it mandatory only for children and teens, per the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Richardson has seemingly followed in his famous parents’ footsteps, currently promoting his latest movie with dad Liam Neeson in the feature film Made in Italy about a bereaved father and son coming to terms with the death of their family’s matriarch almost two decades ago. While Richardson reveals he had a “relatively normal upbringing,” he had a remarkable and humbling childhood thanks to his father and late mother.
“I feel like I had a relatively normal upbringing, but then I have memories where we are on a holiday and spontaneously mom would get everybody together and say, ‘Come on, let’s write something. Let’s do a play,’” he said. “And of course there were really talented famous actors around us, from Sir Ian McKellen to Ralph Fiennes, and we would all get together and write this funny play.”