Naomi Watts has reflected on tragically losing her father at age seven to an apparent heroin overdose.
The British-Australian actress, 54, spoke candidly about her childhood and family in a new in-depth interview with Tatler magazine.
Watts admitted there’s a great ‘sadness’ surrounding the loss of her late father Peter, who was a sound engineer for Pink Floyd and died at 31, and said she barely has any memories of him or photographs.
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“Even sadder, there’s no real photos or anything,” Watts told the publication.
“Every now and again, I come across a new photo and I’m like, ah, I think I remember that day, or I think I can feel where we are… Triggers.”
At age 14, her stylist mother Myfanwy, affectionately called Miv, decided to move to Australia from the UK with Naomi and Naomi’s brother Ben.
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Her parents divorced when Naomi was just four years old.
Watts said her acting work often focuses on the subjects of identity and grief, which she said she’s had to deal with herself throughout her own life.
“Those are two big things in my life that I’ve struggled with – identity, I think, because of moving around all the time. And then the grief thing, obviously, my father.”
In the interview, she also touched on her friendship with Nicole Kidman, who she went to high school with in Sydney.
“She was always an inspiration. The fact that she had done the amount of work she’d done was like, “Oh yeah, another North Shore girl has achieved this, so maybe there’s a chance [for me],”‘ Watts explained.
In 2021, Watts told Vogue magazine about the loss of her father and said she was still ‘grappling’ with the tragic loss decades later.
“Having grown up losing my dad at a very early age, I think that’s a story I know well; it’s still sorting itself out at the ripe age of 52,” she said at the time.
“Through that, you lose a part of yourself… you feel like you’re not fully formed in a way,” she added.
Watts is one of Australia’s most successful Hollywood exports, known for films including King Kong, The Ring and Mulholland Drive.