Jean Smart, 70, says being a single mother is the hardest thing Ive ever done – Daily Mail

Jean Smart shared her thoughts on the challenges of raising thirteen-year-old son Forrest on her own after the tragic passing of her husband Richard Gilliland.

At the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the 70-year-old actress spoke to People magazine about how she had been coping after Richard unexpectedly passed away due to a heart condition last March. 

‘Well, certainly losing my husband was very unexpected, not something that I thought would happen for at least another 20 years,’ she told the media outlet.

Jean continued, ‘And having a young child, it’s been unimaginable.

‘Being a single mother is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. 

‘But we were both actors and, you know, the work has brought me great satisfaction and a great distraction certainly from my grief.’

The star explained, ‘I work with the most loving, wonderful people who have just supported me and loved me and helped me through all of this, and so this is … I just feel so fortunate, you know, to be where I am right now.’

‘It’s just hard to put any meaning to this year, it’s just been such incredible highs and incredible lows,’ she added. ‘I try not to overanalyze it too much.’

Jean and Richard, who also shared son Connor, 31, adopted Forrest from China in 2009. 

On Sunday, the Mare of Easttown actress attended the awards ceremony at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica with her youngest son.

She dazzled in a burgundy floor-length ruffled gown as she posed for photos on the red carpet with Forrest, who looked dapper in a black suit with a black tie.

Jean mentioned both of her sons in her acceptance speech after she won Outstanding Female Actor in a Comedy Series for Hacks.

‘This has been such a joy, this late in the game it’s such a treat,’ she said. ‘To my two children, Forest and Connor, you are my life and please everybody, let’s pray for peace thank you.’     

Last September, Jean paid tribute to Richard as she collected the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy for Hacks.

‘I have to acknowledge my late husband who passed away six months yesterday,’ the Seattle-born actress said in her acceptance speech. ‘I would not be here without him, and without his kind of putting his career on the back burner so I could take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities that I have had.’

Smart also hailed her ‘two incredible children’ Connor and Forrest, ‘who are both very courageous individuals in their own right and put up with mommy commuting from Philadelphia and back.’

‘Hacks has been such a thrill,’ said Jean, who was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Mare of Easttown at the event.

Smart looked elegant in a black gown by Ralph Lauren with sheer paneling around the arms and chest with her blonde locks neatly styled. She rounded out the glam ensemble with dangling diamond earrings and a black clutch.

She posed on the red carpet with Forrest, who was clad in a black suit with blue button-up top with his hair parted to the side at the luxe ceremony.

‘Getting honored and nominated never gets old,’ she told E! News on the red carpet. ‘It’s part of the fun, and to be honored by your peers is the best.’ 

 ‘Getting honored and nominated never gets old,’ she told E! News on the red carpet. ‘It’s part of the fun, and to be honored by your peers is the best.’

Forrest said he was ‘very proud of’ his mother, as ‘she really deserves it [and] worked really hard for everything.’

The family was seen on the red carpet six months after Gilliland’s March 18, 2021 death.

She opened up about working in the wake of Richard’s death while speaking to The New Yorker this past June.

‘I still had a week of Hacks left to do,’ she said. ‘That was hard. I had to do a funeral scene. I was a wreck, but it actually turned out to be very funny.’

She continued: ‘I was a wreck, but it actually turned out to be very funny. But he was one of those actors who never got the chance to really show what he could do. A couple of times onstage, he did.

‘But he really sacrificed his career for me to be able to take advantage of my opportunities. I wouldn’t have all this, if it wasn’t for him.’

Smart said that ‘it’s been really weird’ in the wake of her spouse’s passing, adding, ‘It’s not anything I ever dreamed would happen.

‘Not so soon. He made me laugh all the time. That’s going to be hard to live without.’ 

On Hacks, Smart plays stand-up comedienne Deborah Vance, whose Las Vegas act has gotten stale causing her manager to force her to work with Ava, a rebellious up-and-coming young writer (played by Hannah Einbinder).

Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Christopher McDonald, Kaitlin Olson, and Rose Abdoo are also featured on the show, which has been picked up for a second season.