Yahoo Lifestyle "Parts Of Me Have Died": 15 Celebrities Who Have Talked Honestly About Living With Grief After The Loss Of A Parent, Child, Friend, And More
Losing a loved one — parent, partner, sibling, child, friend, etc — is something I hope no one ever has to go through at a young age or unexpectedly, but sadly, it does happen.
Recently, my mom died after a short battle with cancer. I'm going to be honest, it has sucked. At 28 years old, I'm suddenly looking ahead and trying to figure out how to live life without her, deal with my grief, and so much more. It's hard.
But the thing about this is that I find myself in a club that I know no other member would want me to join, but it's kind of been therapeutic to hear from others who have been where I am. Aside from friends who have also gone through it, I've turned to watching videos and reading about some of my favorite actors and singers who have dealt with loss and grief, too.
So, in case there is someone else like me out there who needs to hear that you're not alone and others have gone through what you're currently going through, here are just 15 celebs who have candidly opened up about their relationship with grief after losing a parent, partner, child, or friend, and how they've coped:
1.First, Austin Butler said his "grief was overwhelming" after his mother died in 2014. Notably, while he was auditioning for Elvis (2022), which ultimately earned him a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. He said realizing Elvis, who also lost his mom at a young age, likely went through the same feelings he did helped him persevere and continue to push himself.
In an interview with the New York Times, Austin recalled, "I dreamed that my mom was alive. But she was dying all over again. And when I woke up, I just felt so totally, horribly heartbroken. My grief was overwhelming. And then all of a sudden, it clicked that Elvis, who also lost his mom when he was only 23, might have had moments that were similar to this one. He might have even woken up from the same dream."
Speaking about his mom, Austin told Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, "When she was in high school, she wanted to be an actor, so I think I’m sort of getting to live this life for both of us in that way. And she was my best friend. So I think she'd be happy."
2.Andrew Garfield spoke candidly about how he hopes his grief over his mom's death stays with him. In a viral clip from his interview with Stephen Colbert in 2021, Andrew shared how his tears were important, saying, "It's only a beautiful thing. This is all the unexpressed love, right? The grief that will remain with us, you know, until we pass."
He continued, saying, "We never get enough time with each other, right? No matter if someone lives to 60, 15, or 99. So I hope this grief stays with me because it's all the unexpressed love that I didn't get to tell her. And I told her every day. We all told her every day. She was the best of us."
Andrew's mom's death coincided with Andrew filming Tick, Tick...Boom!, which was based on the musical created by Jonathan Larson, who died at just 35 years old. Speaking about how getting to honor his mom and Jonathan with the role, Andrew tearfully shared, "I got to sing Jonathan Larson's unfinished song while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song."
3.Regina King said she is now a "different person" following her son's death in 2022. In a 2024 interview on Good Morning America, Regina spoke openly about how her life is different, saying, "Grief is a journey. I understand that grief is love that has no place to go."
She continued, saying, "It's important to me to honor Ian in the totality of who he is, speak about him in the present, because he is always with me, the joy and happiness that he gave all of us."
Regina said her favorite thing about herself is being "Ian's mom," adding, "I know that I share this grief with everyone, but no one else is Ian’s mom. Only me. And so, it’s mine, and the sadness will never go away. It’ll always be with me."
4.Shortly after Matthew Perry died in 2023, Jennifer Aniston penned a touching tribute on Instagram, where she talked about learning to live with her grief. She wrote, "We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA."
Recently, while doing an interview for Variety's Actors on Actors alongside Quinta Brunson, Jennifer began to cry when she was asked about rewatching Friends. Visibly emotional, Quinta was praised for telling Jennifer, "You’re already crying. Do you want a minute? We don’t have to talk about [this]."
Jennifer added these were "happy tears."
5.Carol Burnett's daughter, Carrie, died in 2002, and she has told some incredible stories over the years about how she believes Carrie is consistently sending her "signs." In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Carol told a beautiful story about how, right after Carrie died, she was sent a Birds of Paradise plant from director Hal Prince, who didn't know it was Carrie's favorite flower, and she had a tattoo of it.
Carol continued, saying, "And then, the next night [I] had dinner with Hal, and the maître d' brought a bottle of champagne over to give to us, and on the label, it said 'Louise,' that was Carrie's middle name and my mother's name." She added, "So, it's like, yeah, I kind of think she's around."
6.In a recent interview at a charity event, Prince Harry discussed his relationship with grief following Princess Diana's death in 1997. "That's the hardest thing, especially for kids, I think, which is, 'I don’t want to talk about it because it will make me sad, but once realizing that if I do talk about it, and I'm celebrating their life, then actually, things become easier,'" Harry said.
Chris Graythen / Getty Images, Tim Graham / Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
He also added, "You convince yourself that the person you’ve lost wants you, or you need to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that they are missed. But then there’s this realization of, no, they must want me to be happy."
7.John Travolta candidly told Esquire Spain in 2021, after the death of his wife Kelly Preston, that he learned mourning someone and dealing with grief is "something very personal." He continued, saying, "Mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead you to heal. Your grief is different from another person's journey."
"The most important thing you can do to help another person when they are in mourning is allow them to live through it and not complicate it with yours," he added. "Let's say you lose someone and at the funeral, you are very sad, then another person approaches you who is feeling more sadder and then doesn't leave enough space for you to mourn. It would be like two boats plummeting to the bottom. That is my experience."
John also said that even though he enjoyed having people around him following Kelly's death, he said that "sometimes it turns into you helping them instead of you working on your loss and grief."
Kelly died in 2020 after being diagnosed with breast cancer. John and Kelly's son Jett, also sadly died in 2009 at just 16 years old.
8.Lupita Nyong'o has been very open about how Chadwick Boseman's death in 2020 affected her. Three years later, in a tribute on Instagram, she wrote, "The confusion was so profound that it took months to trust the feeling of joy again ... Death is hard to understand, maybe even harder to accept. But the love generated from the life he lived will fuel every anniversary marking his absence."
Recently, Lupita spoke about how filming A Quiet Place: Day One was "therapeutic" after Chadwick's death, considering a theme of the movie is mortality. She told People, "What I came to realize is that it's really important to be reminded of our mortality because then we live life just a little more intentionally. When we think we have all the time in the world, we can really take people for granted and experiences for granted."
9.Michelle Williams said parenting her daughter, Matilda, after Heath Ledger died in 2008 was challenging but helped during her immediate grieving process. In a 2009 interview with Vogue, she said, "But every time I really miss him and wonder where he's gone, I just look at her."
In a 2016 interview with Porter Magazine, while promoting Manchester By the Sea, where her character also deals with loss, Michelle explained how Matilda was still helping her cope with the loss of Heath. She said, "In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I’m a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you’ve been. I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad… I mean, it just won’t ever be right."
She added, "Not only are we OK, she’s happy. Life has brought us to a place that’s not just surviving but thriving."
10.Following her mom's death in 2018, Queen Latifah opened up about how she gets "little signs" from her mom every day. In an interview with People, she explained, "She still talks to me. I know it's going to sound crazy, but I get little signs. Lights will blink. Things will flicker. People will come into my life that I don't know where they came from, but they become very helpful."
Queen Latifah also spoke about how her mom was a beloved public school teacher, so her memory lives on in all of the students she helped.
She explained, "She made such a big impact, not just on my life, but on thousands of students whose lives she changed over her 25 years of teaching — kids who thought they had no future until they met Mrs. O. and she called them by their names and told them that they can be whatever they wanted to be. And they may not have ever heard that message before." Queen Latifah added, "Her memory is everywhere I go."
11.After Lisa Marie Presley's sudden death in 2023, Riley Keough reflected on how she's dealt with the tragedies in her life. She told Vanity Fair, "I have been through a great deal of pain, and I've had my.… Parts of me have died, and I've felt like my heart has exploded, but I also feel.… I'm trying to think of how to phrase this.… I have strengthened the qualities that have come about through adversity."
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue, Jeffrey Mayer / WireImage / Getty Images
Riley recalled the last time she saw her mom, which was the day after the 2023 Golden Globes, where Elvis actor Austin Butler won for Best Actor in a Drama. She recalled to Vanity Fair, "We had dinner. That was the last time I saw her. I remember thinking about how beautiful she looked, and that was my strongest memory of the dinner."
Lisa's death came three years after Riley's brother, Benjamin Storm Keough, died in 2020 at just 27 years old.
12.Megan Thee Stallion has been very open about how the loss of her mother has affected her, namely not having the one person in her life who was always there to be a confidant. In an interview with Apple Music, she said, "She was just so cool, and I just trusted her so much. And her opinion just meant so much to me. And I just feel like when she would say I did a good job, it would feel like, 'Okay, I did that. I did a good job,' but now when I do, I'm just like, 'Okay, what’s next?' Because I don't know if I'm doing that good of a job."
She continued, saying, "When I’m going through something personal, I’m like, 'I just got to pray.' Because I don’t even know who I can ask. Who can I ask about this situation? And who do I trust?”
13.Following the death of his mom and sister, Louis Tomlinson told The Guardian in 2019, "That whole dark side I’ve gone through, it sounds stupid to say, but it gives me strength everywhere else in my life because that’s the darkest shit that I’m going to have to deal with."
He added, "So it makes everything else not feel easier and not less important, but, in the grand scheme of things, you see things for what they are, I suppose."
Speaking about what his experience with loss has taught him about himself, Louis said, "There’s no time for me to be sat feeling sorry for myself. I’ve been to rock bottom, and I feel like whatever my career’s going to throw in front of me, it’s going to be nothing as big or as emotionally heavy as that. So, weirdly, I’ve turned something that's really dark into something that empowers me, makes me stronger."
14.Dove Cameron penned an emotional tribute to her late father on Instagram in 2019 after she finally went to his favorite restaurant in LA after living there for nine years. She wrote, "i have very few reminders in my life left of him, physical proof that he was ever here to begin with. it’s almost like my life now, and my life with him, are two different lives, and i guess, for the most part, i have kept it that way on purpose."
She continued, saying, "not because i prefer it, or i want to forget, but mostly because it is too painful to look at all the time. i was going to try to spin this into something happy, something about healing and remembering those lost, because that’s what i think we would all prefer, and that’s what i’ve always done. it’s more comfortable, and i would feel less naked. but recently, i don’t have the energy to do that in my life anymore. and hiding the sad parts is doing a disservice to myself, and the quality of my life. it’s not happy. it’s really sad, everyday. and so am i, most days, if i’m honest. and that’s ok, too."
15.And finally, after Natasha Richardson's sudden death in 2009, Liam Neeson has been extremely open about how his relationship with grief is a spectrum and something he's constantly living with. In a 2011 interview with Esquire, he said, "But that's the weird thing about grief. You can't prepare for it. You think you're gonna cry and get it over with. You make those plans, but they never work."
He reflected on how he returned to filming the movie Chloe shortly after Natasha's death, saying it felt like a "no-brainer" to essentially run away back to work.
Liam said, "I just think I was still in a bit of shock. But it's kind of a no-brainer to go back to that work. It's a wee bit of a blur, but I know the tragedy hadn't just really smacked me yet."
Have you dealt with the loss of a loved one? What has your grief journey been like? Tell us, if you feel comfortable, in the comments below!
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
