RICHARD E Grant has revealed his alcoholic father fired a bullet at his head in a harrowing childhood moment.
The actor, 67, grew up in Swaziland with his dad, Henrik, after he split from his mother, Leonne.
His dad Henrik, pictured, was an alcoholic[/caption]
Richard loved his dad when he was sober but described him as a “monster” once he began drinking whiskey.
Speaking to Davina McCall on her Begin Again podcast, Richard recalled his dad trying to kill him.
“He tried to shoot me when I was 15 when I emptied all his Scotch supply down the sink,” said the star.
“I was half way through [pouring] the eleventh bottle, gun at the back of my head, I ducked, went off, ran to the garden – he finally found me, said ‘I’m going to blow your brains out’.”
Furious Richard urged him to do it, but fortunately his dad failed.
He continued: “He pulled the trigger, but because he was drunk, it wavered, so it went straight past.”
Prior to his parents’ separation, Richard admitted he lived with guilt after seeing his mum have sex with Henrik’s best friend in a car.
He was snoozing in the backseat when he was awakened by “rhythmic” sounds. When he opened his eyes and looked over at the front seat he witnessed the romp.
Unsure of what to do, he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
“I knew I was witnessing something I shouldn’t have,” he told Davina. “You feel guilty. You feel complicit. You know something that nobody else should know.”
Richard said he never felt safe at home and was “piggy in the middle” for the last nine months of his parents’ relationship as they were no longer speaking.
Chainsmoker Henrik died aged 52 from lung cancer – the same condition that Richard’s late wife Joan died from in 2021 – when his son was 24.
Richard said he views every year he lives beyond his father’s death age as a “bonus”.
His mother, who Richard describes as a narcissist in the podcast, died in 2023 aged 93.
The two were estranged for decades before eventually salvaging a relationship.
After her death, Richard wrote on social media: “We had an incredibly complicated relationship, and she was somebody that was, for me anyway, emotionally withdrawn and withheld approbation or approval of anything.
“Nothing was ever quite good enough but what that proved to be was a great motor for ambition and determination, to try and prove yourself and be the best you possibly can.
“And, yet ironically, whatever she did she demanded and got applause and approval from everyone around her, including me.”
Richard pictured as a young boy[/caption]
