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Richard E Grant's Family — The Actor Met Future Wife When She Was Still Married

Oyin Balogun
Jun 10, 2021
09:00 A.M.

Actor Richard E Grant has been married to his wife, dialect coach Joan Washington, for almost four decades, and they are the proud parents of their two children.

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Born Richard Grant Esterhuysen In Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) on 5 May 1957, Richard Grant is an actor and presenter.

He is best known for his roles in films such as 1992's "The Player," 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "The Iron Lady" in 2011, "Logan" in 2017, and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" 2019.

Richard E. Grant on the red carpet with his wife Joan Washington (R) at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards on February 10, 2019 | Photo: Getty Images

Richard E. Grant on the red carpet with his wife Joan Washington (R) at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards on February 10, 2019 | Photo: Getty Images

In 2018, he earned several award nominations and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in the biographical film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

While Grant's life and career have been marked by an impressive amount of critical acclaim, his personal life is also worth taking a look at. Here is all you need to know about his wife and children.

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RICHARD E GRANT'S WIFE

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In 1982, Grant was working on learning a Belfast accent for a film role. He then met a dialect coach named Joan Washington at the Royal National Theatre. Narrating the first time they met, Grant said to Independent:

"I met her at the Actors' Centre in London. She was teaching an accent session with a bunch of actors, and I thought she had the most wonderful voice..."

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Even recalling her outfit — a boiler suit and Kicker shoes with slightly short, cropped hair — Grant sweetly admitted that he instantly thought she looked very cool, a tad bit frenetic, and most importantly, very cute.

After spending weeks in Swaziland for the Christmas holidays, Grant returned to London, got on one knee, and proposed.

Luckily for Grant, Washington also needed a black African accent for a play she was doing at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Seeing as Grant was born in Swaziland, it seemed like the perfect trade by barter opportunity.

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However, Washington was married at the time, and they convened for dialect lessons at her and her husband's home. They exercised restraint as Grant himself had experience with infidelity — he once revealed that he caught his mother cheating with his father's best friend.

The friendship took off very quickly as Grant and Washington discovered that they had quite a lot in common. Sometime during their friendship, Washington parted ways with her former partner, and for a while, she remained adamant about not remarrying.

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After spending weeks in Swaziland for the Christmas holidays, Grant returned to London, got on one knee, and proposed to Washington right at the airport. Their love story hit a significant mark when they finally tied the knot in 1986.

Washington was born in Aberdeen in the United Kingdom and got her professional training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her dialect coaching credits include "Angels in America," "Yentl," and "A World Apart."

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RICHARD E GRANT'S KIDS

Three years after the actor and his wife tied the knot, Richard E Grant's daughter, Olivia, was born. Just like her father, Olivia also has a career in the acting industry.

Her work credits include 2007's "Atonement," "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" in 2019, and 2020 hit action movie "The Old Guard."

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Together with her father, Olivia, runs a unisex perfume business, JACK. The actor loves to gush about his daughter and how proud of her he is.

He is also a dad to his stepson, Tom. Olivia and Tom are certainly lucky to have their parents be so in love with them and each other. Grant and Washington celebrated their 37th anniversary in 2020, and they are looking forward to many more.

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