Losing a loved one is always complicated. Even more so if it is a father or a mother. The grief and emotions are powerful and, regardless of age, nobody is ever ready including actor, Jamie Dornan.
Dornan, the deuteragonist of the hit movie ’50 Shades of Grey’, has opened up and confessed what it has meant for him to be orphaned before turning 40, something that is not very common for biological children.
However, the 41-year-old lost his mother during his youth and, later, his father during the pandemic caused by COVID. In addition, Dornan has also lost four childhood friends, showing how death and grief seems to follow him around.
During a recent interview, the actor opened up about his feelings after having to go through those delicate situations when he was relatively young, expressing how it has affected him in his present.
“The first thing I thought was that I was an orphan,” Dornan said to Radio Times. “Which is strange to think about when you’re in your early thirties.
“Now grief has become a very everyday part of my life, I’m in the shadow of it. I’ve probably experienced more than your average.
“And it’s strengthened me in loads of ways. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, but I do think there is something that emboldens you when you experience loss like that.”
Similarly, the actor also talked about how devastating it was for him to lose his mother to cancer when he was just 15 before, just a year later, at 16, he lost four of his close friends to a car accident.
His dad’s lasting message
Dornan lost his father, Jim, to the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed seven million people since emerging in late 2019.
The 72-year-old gynaecologist died in 2021 after succumbing to the disease but he lives on in Dornan‘s philosophy as the actor revealed a message his father left him upon losing his mother as a teenager.
“My dad said to me,” Dornan continued. “When my mum died, ‘You can’t let the death of your mother be the thing that defines you.’
“And I’ve tried not to, even though internally, I think it does in lots of different ways.”
