In the latest episode of On the Marie Curie Couch, bereavement expert Jason Davidson meets Tara Fitzgerald.
British actress Tara Fitzgerald has appeared in films such as Sirens and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (both with Hugh Grant) as well as Brassed Off. Since 2007, she's also appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC TV series Waking The Dead and played Selyse Baratheon in Game of Thrones. In this episode of On the Marie Curie Couch, Tara describes the death of her father, Michael, when she was just 11 – and how finding out much later that he'd taken his own life affected her grief.
Reprocessing grief
"At the age of 19, we learnt that [my father] had actually committed suicide. For all sorts of reasons, very solid reasons, my stepmother had decided that she couldn't tell us the truth about his death. What that meant was that I had to reprocess the death eight years later and that was very strange."
A better person
"With my father, 'Why wasn't I enough?' was one question. 'Why wasn't I enough to keep him here?' What could I have done, what should I have done? If I'd been a better person, I guess it comes down to. But I know that's not true."
Listen now
Tap the link near the top of this page to listen to Tara's chat with Jason. Alternatively, listen to or download it via Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd prefer, you can read a full transcript of the episode.
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Content note: discussion of death and grief with reference to themes/topics that might be triggering or upsetting.
