Hollywood star McElhone hopes her story will help others

HOLLYWOOD actress Natascha McElhone’s life was as close to perfect as one might imagine when it came crumbling down around her without warning.

In May 2008 the screen star was filming in LA, joined by her two young children and pregnant with her third, when the call came from London to say her husband of 10 years — renowned plastic surgeon Martin Kelly — had died.

She has spent the past two years attempting to cope with his death and ‘fill the gap’ left when a sudden heart attack took the Irish surgeon at the age of 43.

Part of that healing process saw McElhone, who is a regular visitor to her parents’ home in Ireland, jot down notes and messages to her late love. Notes which she has now published, entitled After You: Letters Of Love, And Loss, To A Husband And Father.

Although small in size this emotional tome affords a massive insight into one of life’s tragic interludes and the pain it brings to bear on a family.

Notions of celebrity are quickly forgotten as the book shows McElhone and her young brood in their barest light.

It is full of honest moments, usually played out behind closed doors or when the kids have gone to bed, of utter despair and confusion at the thought of going on without a soulmate.

But it also provides a reminder that there is a future and a way forward and McElhone hopes this is the benefit others may take from reading the book.

“Writing this has been a scaffolding to help prop me up, a handrail as I take my first steps down this dark, lonely staircase,” she states. “Maybe it can be the same for someone else who has lost their person, their love?”

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Facing The World Charity, co-founded by Martin Kelly.

■After You, published by Penguin Books, is available at all good bookshops and online stores costing £12.99. ISBN 9780670919093