Richard E Grant has explained the value of keeping a diary to help him cope with major events in his life (Picture: Rex Features)
Richard E Grant has revealed a shocking incident from a childhood where he caught his mum having sex with his father’s best friend.
The Withnail and I actor has kept a diary throughout his life to help him deal with traumatic experiences, notably from his childhood, including an incident where his father chased him around with a gun.
However, it was one encounter in particular that prompted him to put pen to paper, after catching his mum with her lover.
Speaking on the latest episode of BBC’s Desert Island Discs, Richard 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.’
The 65-year-old continued: ‘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.’
The actor is the latest guest on Lauren Laverne’s Desert Island Discs (Picture: PA)
Richard also opened up about the death of his wife Joan Washington (Picture: Rex Features)
Richard, who was long estranged from his mother before they reconciled, went on to reveal how his father began drinking heavily after the divorce and even allegedly threatened to ‘blow [Richard’s] brains out’.
‘I said, “Go ahead and do it! Just let’s get this over and done with”,’ Richard said recalling the incident from when he was a teenager.
‘He missed, because he was so drunk, and then I ran away from home for a couple of weeks.’
Elsewhere in his chat with BBC presenter Lauren Laverne, Richard opened up about the death of his beloved wife Joan Washington, who died eight months after being diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2021.
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The incident prompted Richard to keep a diary throughout his life.
