Game of Thrones star Gemma Whelan has revealed her mother died by drowning, saying there’s “such a big hole in me now” following her “sudden [and] shocking” death.
The 45-year-old opened up to fans on the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death, explaining in a post on Instagram that she wanted to “address the profound solitude and loneliness of a sudden, tragic shocking death”.
Writing that she “fully acknowleges[s] grief is different for everyone”, Whelan continued: ”I suppose I'm looking to say that if you're in a similar position of sudden loss and reeling from shock, as I continue to, you're not alone.
“What terrible things we can endure, and be OK in the not OK.
“I don't think this too shall ever pass but I have excellent friends and family and support and I forge forward with positivity and hope that the hole fills a little year on year with good memories of her and new memories with my kids.”
Whelan added that a year on from her mother’s death, “I still go to call her, I still take photos thinking she'll love them and then remember”.
“It's bloody awful,” she continued. “However, I am also happy and fulfilled and smiling for real most of the time. It just catches me out.”
The actor shared her words alongside a photograph of a lake in her mother’s native Canada, close to where some of her ashes are scattered.
“The rest will go with my dad in a river in the Lake District when no one is looking as apparently it's illegal to scatter willy nilly, but she'd love it if we got caught, forever the rebel,” Whelan said. “Love you mum.”
Whelan is best known for playing Yara Greyjoy, the older sister of Alfie Allen’s Theon Greyjoy, in all eight seasons of Game of Thrones – and previously praised the HBO drama with “chang[ing] things in terms of how women are written and represented”.
“Obviously, it was a fantasy, but the women were painted very realistically nonetheless,” she said. “Maybe not the murdering side of things, but they were independent and capable of running the show.”
Whelan’s other credits include Channel 4’s 2017 adaptation of The End of the F***ing World and series three of Killing Eve.
More recently, Whelan has appeared cop thriller The Tower and Inside No. 9, as well as portraying Charlotte Brontë in the National Theatre production Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.
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