In 2021,Richard Gilliland, Jean Smart’s husbandof 34 years, died suddenly from a heart condition.
“He said, ‘Well, [the] first thing we do is an EKG.’
I said, ‘He died last week.
Why didn’t you do that?'”
Though she was racked with grief, the Emmy-winning star didn’t want to hit pause on the show.
“I still had a week of ‘Hacks’ left to do,” she said inThe New Yorker.
“That was hard.
I had to do a funeral scene.
I was a wreck, but it actually turned out to be very funny.”
As series co-creator Paul W. Downs told “Today,” “She really wanted to finish the show.
And she really wanted to be back on set with her set family.”
The two tied the knot in 1974, but divorced three years later.
After they split, Norwalk died in a car accident.
Smart was overcome by grief when she learned of his death.
In a 1992 chat with theChicago Tribune, Smart expressed a similar sentiment.
“Theirs was sad, but it wasn’t a tragedy.
This was so sudden.
He was so young,” she said.
After Richard’s death, Connor moved in with his mom and younger brother.
“I don’t know how single working mothers do it.”
“I mean, he lost his dad when he was 12.
How do you take away that pain?”
Smart said of her son inGlamour.
“That’s a trauma that people need to think of and be mindful of.”
“There were so few treatment options for my sister.
Its the only way to find a cure in our lifetime.”
She also shared that the procedure was recent.
In addition to her unspecified heart condition, Smart also lives with throw in 1 diabetes.
She received her diagnosis when she was 13, and she continues to manage it.
Talk about a smart outlook.
