TORONTO — Liam Neeson’s eldest son Micheál has revealed he turned to drugs and alcohol following the death of his mother, actress Natasha Richardson, after an accident in Quebec.
“It was devastating,” the 19-year-old recalled in an interview with Sunday Times ahead of the sixth anniversary of his mother’s death.
Micheál was 13 when Richardson fell during a ski lesson on a beginner run at Mont Tremblant, a ski resort about 90 minutes northwest of Montreal, on March 16, 2009, and suffered an epidural hematoma — a devastating head injury.
Richardson initially refused medical attention but, hours later, started suffering severe headaches. Someone called 911.
Richardson, who was 45, was rushed to nearby Centre Hospitalier Laurentien and then transferred to a trauma centre at Montreal’s Sacré-Coeur Hospital.
Two days after she fell at the ski resort (and after being flown home to New York City) Richardson was taken off life support.
“She and I had made a pact,” husband Liam Neeson told 60 Minutes last year. “If any of us got into a vegetative state that we’d pull the plug.”
Micheál had been with his mother at Mont Tremblant and was at her side at the hospital before Liam, who was filming Chloe in Toronto, arrived.
Micheál admitted he didn’t handle the loss well.
“In my mind, subconciously, I either pushed it out or stored it deep inside. And so, within the next week I was like, ‘OK, on with my life.'”
Micheál said he started making bad decisions.
“I was going out, partying a lot, looking for self-gratification,” he said. “I wanted to be the man, doing these drugs.”
Micheál recalled convincing himself he simply liked to have fun, “but looking back, I realize it was a delayed reaction.”
His downward spiral stopped early last year. “I couldn’t leave my house. I was unmotivated, couldn’t wake up in the morning,” he told the Times. “It was dark. I hit rock bottom and couldn’t do anything.”
Micheál sought treatment at rehab and is now working as a fashion gallery curator in London.
He said he still misses his mom.
“Not having the mother figure definitely set the balance of the family off,” said Micheál.
“When I was younger, I was more of a momma’s boy, my brother was more of a dad’s boy.”
Micheál said there is a lot of Richardson inside him. “I am definitely similar to her – into the social side of life, love my friends,” he said.
“She never vocalised it, but I know my mum liked the idea of me becoming an actor. She would have thought that was cool.”
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