Actor Damian Lewis has paid tribute to his late wife, Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory, in an article for The Sunday Times, describing her as "an even more brilliant person than she was an actress".
Helen McCrory's death "after an heroic battle with cancer" was announced by her husband on Friday. She was 52.
— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) April 16, 2021
"As I sit down to write this, I can hear Helen shouting from the bed, 'Keep it short, Damian, it's not about you'," Lewis began his Sunday Times article.
"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 ...
"As I sit down to write this, I can hear Helen shouting from the bed, 'Keep it short, Damian, it's not about you.'"
— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) April 18, 2021
Damian Lewis writes for The Sunday Times on the passing of his wife, Helen McCrory https://t.co/oGY0krHjzS
"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."
Lewis said he had "never known anyone so consciously spread happiness", recounting that the nurses who took care of McCrory looked forward to seeing her "because she made their day better".
"I've never known anyone able to enjoy life as much," he recalled.
"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," he continued. "It's an elusive emotion. Helen believed you choose happiness."
Lewis said that McCrory had told their two teenage children not to be sad because "I've lived the life I wanted to".
She had also joked about him having relationships in the future.
"She said to us from her bed, 'I want Daddy to have girlfriends, lots of them, you must all love again, love isn't possessive, but you know, Damian, try at least to get through the funeral without snogging someone'."
"Already I miss her," he concluded. "She has shone more brightly in the last months than you would imagine even the brightest star could shine. 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."
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