Actress Natasha Richardson died five years ago after a skiing accident, and still, her surviving husband Liam Neeson struggles to believe that her death was “real.”

Liam Neeson On Natasha Richardson's Death

“[Her death] was never real. It still kind of isn’t,” Neeson told Anderson Cooper in an interview for 60 Minutes. "There’s periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years … anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I’m going to hear her.”

While at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant ski resort with her sons in 2009, Richardson took a fall on a beginner’s slope, banging her head. What at first appeared to be a minor injury soon revealed itself to be life-threatening, though not soon enough for doctors to save her life. When Neeson was able to see her, he knew she wasn’t going to pull through.

“She was on life support,” he told 60 Minutes. “I went in to her and I told her I loved her, said, ‘Sweetie, you’re not coming back from this, you’ve banged your head.’ She and I had made a pact, if any of us got into a vegetative state that we’d pull the plug,” he added. “That was my immediate thought … ‘Ok, these tubes have to go. She’s gone.’”

One thing that cheers up the grief-stricken Neeson is the knowledge that Richardson’s death has given three other people the chance to continue living their lives. “Donated three of her organs, so she’s keeping three people alive at the moment … her heart, her kidneys and her liver,” Neeson said. “It’s terrific … and I think she would be very thrilled and pleased by that.”

– Chelsea Regan

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