Super Bowl ad pro and Hollywood royalty, Liam Neeson has revealed that he has found love again. Seven years after the death of his wife Natasha Richardson the 63-year-old has opened up about his lovelife but refused to reveal his new partner's identity.
The County Antrim star, speaking during an interview about his upcoming 1916 documentary, was asked if he had any St. Valentine’s Day plans.
Neeson replied “I'll send out a few bunches of flowers to various people and I usually just say 'from an Irish admirer'."
When pressed and asked if there was anyone special he said "Yes, but I'd embarrass her if I said her name, she's incredibly famous. I'll have to do my best for her. It's amazing how far a simple bunch of freshly picked flowers will go in a lady's life, I find."
The star’s wife, fellow actor Natasha Richardson, died in 2009 after a skiing accident. She died, aged 45, in New York following a fall at the Quebec resort of Mont Tremblan. The father of two, Neeson, has kept his private life to himself since her death but was previously linked to publicist Freya St Johnston however, they reported split in 2014.
Speaking to Ireland’s Sunday Independent Neeson also admitted that his grief over losing Richardson was still a "touchy subject."
He explained "Of course the grief is still there. You do your best. I had many little letters, beautiful cards scrawled from people after her death. I still have them and they are very meaningful. It is really touching," he explained.
"In your soul you know that there are people out there caring for you. That means a hell of a lot to me."
Liam previously admitted he still struggles to process the loss.
He shared "It hits you. It's like a wave. You just get this profound feeling of instability ... the Earth isn't stable anymore and then it passes and it becomes more infrequent, but I still get it sometimes.
"[Her death] was never real. It still kind of isn't. There are periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years... any time I hear that door opening, I still think I'm going to hear her."
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Natasha’s son Michael was just 13 when she died. Now an actor himself the 20-year-old spoke just last year about how her death affected him. Their son admitted that he had “pushed it out or stored it deep inside" but in 2014 he began "partying a lot" and "hit rock bottom."
He said "I wanted to be the man, doing these drugs." Since then he’s undergone wilderness therapy in Utah, rebuilt his life and is developing an acting career and opening a boutique in Soho, London. Michael starred alongside his father in the LG advert during halftime at Super Bowl 50. He’s also been cast to play Michael Collins, like father like son, in an upcoming movie.
When asked about his son’s decision to enter the family business Neeson said “It gladdens my heart but it also makes me wary for him. My lineage (in acting) is short but my wife's goes back to the 1700s. He's taking it very seriously. He's had a couple of opportunities for screen tests for major things and he's turned them down. I asked him why and he said, 'I'm not trained yet', so I think that's wise."
Currently the Ballymena native is on the promo trail for “1916 The Irish Rebellion” the upcoming documentary he narrates.
The Keough Naughton School of Irish Studies at Notre Dame production will air as a three hour series and will also be turned into an 80 minute feature. The series will air in America on over 120 PBS stations, on RTE in Ireland and on the BBC. Its aim is to bring the events of Easter 1916 to a global audience and highlight connections which have significance up to and including the recent Irish peace process.
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Having played the title role in the successful movie Michael Collins Neeson is sure to be the right man for the job. However, even though Neeson grew up in County Antrim he admits that he did not understand the significance of the 1916 Easter Rising until he came to Dublin 50 years ago.
He told the Sunday Independent “Of course, I was at Queens [University] during the bad days of internment and all that but during the Troubles it was quite vague as to why we were fighting. I was blissfully ignorant.
"We learnt very little in English history books about the events of 1916. 200,000 Irishmen fought in the horrors of the First World War, I was completely ignorant of that fact. I came down to Dublin in 1966 to represent my county in the juvenile boxing championships and the whole city was festooned in flags and pictures of strange looking men."
It was another trip to Dublin and a 1916 tale that saw Neeson’s career as an actor take off. In 1976 Neeson starred in the Abbey Theater’s production of We Do It For Love, playing the role of Padraig Pearse. Director John Boorman spotted his talent and he was then cast for Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men, also at the Abbey. It was then he won his first movie role in Excalibur and the rest, as they say is history.
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