The actor said that the moment his wife of fifteen years was taken off life support still feels unreal to him.
- Feb 21, 2014
AceShowbiz - Liam Neeson opens up about his wife's death during an interview with Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes". The actor admitted to still grieving over Natasha Richardson's death although it has been nearly five years.
"[Her death] was never real. It still kind of isn't," the 61-year-old star told Cooper. "There's periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years ... anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I'm going to hear her."
The "Battleship" actor also said, "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."
Richardson died on March 19, 2009 at the age of 45 due to head injury she got while skiing in Montreal, Canada. The doctors told Neeson that she was brain dead after falling on the slopes. Neeson recalled how he made a painful decision to take her off life support.
"She was on life support," he said about his wife of 15 years. "I went in to her and I told her I loved her, said 'Sweetie, you're not coming back from this, you've banged your head. I don't know if you can hear me, but this is what's gone down. We're bringing you back to New York, all your family and friends will come.' "
He continued, "She and I had made a pact, if any of us got into a vegetative state that we'd pull the plug ...that was my immediate thought ... 'Okay, these tubes have to go. She's gone.' " Richardson's organs were donated to three different persons. "She's keeping three people alive at the moment," said Neeson. "Her heart, her kidneys and her liver. ...I think she would be very thrilled and pleased by that."
