It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight months since the shocking ski accident that led to the death of celebrated actress Natasha Richardson. For the first time, Natasha’s younger sister, actress Joely Richardson, has spoken publicly about the loss. The “Nip/Tuck” star is currently promoting her work in the Showtime series “The Tudors” and was asked about her sister’s death. She responded by saying that she coped by throwing herself into work.

Eight months after the death of her beloved sister, Joely Richardson has revealed how she threw herself into work to cope with the loss.

Miss Richardson, 44, spoke of the tragedy for the first time since Natasha died after a skiing accident, aged 45.

‘We were such opposites, but completely enmeshed in each other,’ she said.

Miss Richardson went back on set the day after her sister’s funeral as she was in the middle of filming the BBC’s new version of The Day of the Triffids. She then moved on to playing Catherine Parr in The Tudors.

She said: ‘A strange autopilot kicks in; your psyche puts your work day into a different compartment from your private life. I’m not kidding – my first shot back on set was reacting to someone dying.’

But she told Tatler magazine this week that she is finally in the mood ‘for a big travel somewhere’.

She is also moving to New York with her daughter Daisy for two months to be closer to Natasha’s sons, Micheal, 14, and Daniel, 13.

Miss Richardson spoke of her shock at her sister’s death, saying: ‘I hadn’t lived a day in my life without her. You worry about your children and your elders, but I never imagined such a thing as this. Tash was a given to me.

‘The shock shatters you on a cellular level, and it takes time for the pieces to come back together, albeit in a different formation.’

Natasha died while on holiday with her children in Canada. She fell and hit her head during a skiing lesson on the nursery slope at the Mount Tremblant resort and sustained a serious head injury.

Her husband, actor Liam Neeson, flew her to hospital near their home in New York, where she died on March 18.

Miss Richardson, who is dating Russian businessman Evgeny Lebedev, revealed how the sisters were particularly close after sharing a bohemian childhood with their unconventional parents, actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson.

Miss Richardson said: ‘So much of what I am is who Tasha was, and I think, sharing all those formative years, there is level of merging. . . I cannot imagine that there will ever be a day when I don’t think of Tasha.’

When asked if she is coming to terms with Natasha’s death, Miss Richardson replied: ‘I don’t look at happiness as being a great goal. A sense of peace, definitely, but it’s like the seasons.

‘I think we’re meant to have a spring, summer, autumn and winter. I’m not looking for a perpetual summer because that would be a flat line.’

[From The Daily Mail]

It has to be devastating to lose a sibling, and it sounds like Joely and Natasha were very close. It will be nice for their children to be near one another for support, especially during the holidays. I know from experience how tough the holidays are after a loss. You keep wondering how different it would be if that loved one were still here.

Natasha Richardson’s husband, actor Liam Neeson, has had similar coping mechanisms to Joely’s: he, too, reported back to work soon after the accident. I think it’s a fairly common reaction to loss: the need to return to some aspect of a normal life. Back in August, Neeson revealed that the family had been encouraged by an outpouring of condolence letters and cards from fans. It was one of the main reasons he decided to apply for American citizenship.

Natasha Richardson, who fell during a skiing lesson at a Quebec resort, has passed away after suffering severe brain trauma. She left the lesson laughing off her injury, but later complained of a headache and was rushed to the hospital, where her injury caused her to lose brain function. Her family chose to take her off of life support at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, and she passed away a few hours later. She was 45 years old. The family has released this statement:

“Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

[from TMZ]

Natasha was named after a character in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and had her acting debut at 4 in her father’s movie The Charge of the Light Brigade. Her acting credits are varied and include those on the stage, in film, and on television. She was a versatile and talented actress as well as activist – she became very involved in charity work to find a cure for AIDS after her father died of the disease.

Natasha’s mother is the legendary Vanessa Redgrave; her husband is Liam Neeson and her sister is actress Joely Richardson. Natasha is also survived by her two sons, Micheál Richard Antonio, 13, and Daniel Jack, 12.

Out hearts and thoughts go out to her family and friends after this terrible tragedy.

Natasha Richardson is shown with her mom, Vanessa Redgrave, in the header on 1/12/09. She is also shown with her husband, Liam Neeson, on 10/17/08. All photos are from 2006 – 2009 and are credit WENN.com

There aren’t as many celebrities looking like they’re going to collapse for lack of electrolytes lately. Nicole Richie came back from the brink with a pregnancy and Angelina Jolie gained enough essential weight for the tabloids to start declaring her pregnant. Cate Blanchett was scary skinny for a while, but that seems to have been in preparation for a role and I swear she’s pregnant now, too. Even crooning drug addict Amy Winehouse no longer looks like a skeleton with a 50s monster movie wig perched on its skull.

Joely Richardson, a 42 year-old British actress currently starring on Nip/Tuck, showed up at an event in London last night looking shockingly gaunt, according to photos published in The Daily Mail. She’s looked too thin in the past, and maybe it’s the dress she’s wearing coupled with the way her hair is pulled back, but she seems to have lost even more weight and her bones are sticking out. She looks like she has a health problem she’s so thin.

The thing is, she looks very ill in the photos from the Daily Mail article taken by agency Retna, where they sound the alarm about her weight. In photos of the same event from an agency we subscribe to, WENN, she looks too thin but not worryingly so. Did they alter the photos or do they just show her thin frame in better detail and harsh light? Her face looks sunken in the photo from the Daily Mail, but her cheeks are fuller and she looks healthy in the photos from WENN, shown here.

Richardson sounds like she has a lot of stress in her life lately. She announced in November of last year that she was leaving the popular FX series to take care of her 15 year-old daughter, Daisy, who suffers from a rare circulatory disorder and needs multiple surgeries.

Instead of leaving the show, though, Richardson took on a slightly less demanding filming schedule and decided to return for the sixth series for 15 out of 22 episodes. She has to film in LA while her daughter stays in Britain for treatment. Richardson divorced Daisy’s father in 2001, and they share custody and are said to get along.

She is said to make $6 million a year for her role as spa owner Julia McNamara on Nip/Tuck.

—Spoiler alert for old episodes—

Richardson’s character has a baby with a deformity in season four of the series, and back when she first quit the series the creator of Nip/Tuck seemed to suggest that it was difficult for her to work through her character’s issues on the show that may have some parallels to her difficult home life:

Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy said: “It was sad, but Joely came before her character. The dynamic of the show changed with the difficulty of what she was going through (personally), plus what she is going through on the show this season playing the mother of a deformed baby. That said, Joely is the best she has ever been.”

[From The Daily Mail]

I hope she’s ok and that she takes care of her health. A lot of moms have problems taking care of themselves and end up giving everything to their families. It must be doubly hard when you have a child with an ongoing illness like that.

Details from Wikipedia and The Daily Mail.

Pictures thanks to WENN.