Heartbreak and tragedy have plagued the legendary Doctor Who actress’s private life
Doctor Who star and fourth-generation actress Jemma Redgrave is notoriously private when it comes to her personal life.
As she reprises her role as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, we take a look at her life away from the cameras.
Famous parents
Jemma was born to actor Corin Redgrave and fashion model Deirdre Hamilton-Hill on 14 January 1965.
“There was so much freedom,” she recalled of her childhood to the Telegraph, with kids games in their spacious garden and music always playing. It had been a very bohemian upbringing.
But at age seven her parents divorced and she believes politics had been behind the split: her father was an outspoken leftist and co-founded the British Marxist Party with his sister, Vanessa. Her mother, by comparison, was more removed and kept her distance.
Jemma reflected: “It was a game of two halves.” But through the turbulence, she remained close with her paternal grandmother and matriarch of the family dynasty, actress Rachel Kempson, who cultivated Jemma’s love of the theatre and set her down the family trade.
Divorce
In 1992, age 27, Jemma married Tim Owen, a famed English barrister. Together, they had two children: Gabriel, born in 1994; and Alfie, born in 2000.
Jemma and Tim stayed together for over 20 years until a quiet and characteristically unpublicised divorce.
Jemma blamed their busy work schedules for the separation, citing the constant pressure of her acting career and his law practice.
She joked: “Tim is a brilliant barrister but would have been a terrible actor. He is very argumentative – trained to demolish opponents – scorched earth!”
Family heartbreak
Heartbreak struck Jemma’s family when in March 2009, her cousin Natasha Richardson – and wife of Liam Neeson – was killed in a freak ski accident in Quebec.
In April 2010, her father Corin lost a long battle to prostate cancer and passed away. A month later, Jemma’s aunt, legendary actress Lynn Redgrave, died due to her own breast cancer, as well as complications arising from bulimia.
In a deeply personal interview with the Guardian, Jemma reflected that grief “is like a tsunami. The waves come from nowhere and shake you to the core”.
Source: Mirror
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