Dame Judi Dench has shared a moving memory of her late husband Michael Williams, revealing how she arranged a special ceremony in their bedroom to ensure he could receive a long-awaited honour just one day before his death.
The 91-year-old actor recalled the poignant moment in her new memoir, Is it Too Late to Make a Run for It?, describing how Williams was recognised by the Vatican for his commitment to Catholicism, becoming a Knight of St Gregory.
“The day before Mikey died, he was awarded a papal knighthood by the Vatican,” Dench wrote.
“His Catholicism was everything to him – he’d been the chairman of the British Catholic Stage Guild and went to Mass most Sundays.”
While Williams received the award in November 2000, he was too sick to travel so the couple instead held the celebration at their home, on January 10, 2001, making the most of the occasion despite Williams’ declining health.
“I wish he’d been able to receive his knighthood in the way that it was meant to happen – at Westminster Cathedral – but he wasn’t well enough to travel.”
Dench recalled that so many people attended that they could not all fit into the bedroom where the ceremony was held. Their daughter, Tara Cressida Williams, set up a baby monitor so guests downstairs could listen.
Williams, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, died the following day aged 65.
Dench and Williams first met while touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s. They married in 1971 and welcomed their daughter the following year.
The couple also worked together, appearing in the television sitcom A Fine Romance and the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini.
Dench has spoken over the years about the heartbreak of losing her husband and how much she continues to miss him more than two decades later.
Her new memoir was written with close friend Brendan O’Hea, an actor and director, although Dench admitted she had not initially realised their conversations were being turned into a book.
“He wrote it by stealth – we are such great friends that he sort of crept up on me,” she said. “I have no idea how long it took to write. We would just chat and he would write.”
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