Damian Lewis has paid an emotional tribute to his late wife Helen McCrory.
The actor announced the death of his wife on Friday, following a private battle with cancer.
In an article for The Sunday Times, the father-of-two described the Peaky Blinders star as “an even more brilliant person than she was an actress”.
He wrote: “As I sit down to write this, I can hear Helen shouting from the bed, ‘Keep it short, Damian, it’s not about you’.”
“I’ll try, but on a weekend when the papers, rightly, will be paying their respects to the Duke of Edinburgh, thousands of others around the world have been remembering m’Duchess, my Little One, royalty in her own right. And I’d like to throw in my tuppence worth.”
“When I say ‘royalty’, I am of course referring to the esteem in which Helen is held in our business. Her nickname to many was Dame Helen (apologies, Dame Helen), and although we’ll never know now whether that would have become a reality, I think secretly, we do know.”
“I’ve never known anyone so consciously spread happiness. To say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re so kind’ as much as she did. Even when dying in her last few days, when talking to our wonderful carers, she repeatedly said, ‘thank you so much’ in her half delirious state.”
“I’ve never known anyone able to enjoy life as much,” Damian added. “Her ability to be in the present and enjoy the moment was inspirational.”
“Nor was she interested in navel-gazing. No real self-interest in self-reflection; she believed in looking out, not in. Which is why she was able to turn her light so brightly on others.”
“Some people believe happiness is a right, some people find happiness difficult. It’s an elusive emotion. Helen believed you choose happiness.”
Damian reflected on his wife’s ability to make each person she met “feel special, as though they were the only person in the room”.
“Gave them her full attention,” he wrote. “Made them laugh, always. There were few funnier people — she was funny as hell.”
“Already I miss her. She has shone more brightly in the last months than you would imagine even the brightest star could shine,” the 50-year-old continued.
“In life, too, we had to rise to meet her. But her greatest and most exquisite act of bravery and generosity has been to ‘normalise’ her death.”
“She’s shown no fear, no bitterness, no self-pity, only armed us with the courage to go on and insisted that no one be sad, because she is happy. I’m staggered by her. She’s been a meteor in our life.”
— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) April 16, 2021
Damian and Helen had been married since 2007, and share two children – daughter Manon, 14, and 13-year-old son Gulliver.
Sharing the news of the death of his 52-year-old wife, Damian said: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after a heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family.”
“She died as she lived. Fearlessly. God we love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you.”
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