Damian Lewis Honors Late Wife Helen McCrory In Emotional Tribute

Actor Damian Lewis shared a heartfelt tribute in the Sunday Times for his late wife Helen McCrory after the “Peaky Blinders” star died Friday after a “heroic battle with cancer.”

Lewis posted a statement Friday on Twitter that McCrory, 52, had passed away. “I’m heartbroken to announce that after a heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family,” Lewis’ post read.

Two days later, the Sunday Times featured Lewis’ emotional tribute to his wife.

“Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress,” he wrote.

“She was a people person, sure. ‘I’m much more interested in who I’m with than where I am,’ she would say, and innately wanted to share. But she also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things out into the world to make it better, to make people feel better.”

Lewis also touched on McCrory’s kindness throughout her life and in her final days. “I’ve never known anyone so consciously spread happiness,” Lewis wrote.

“To say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re so kind’ as much as she did. Even when dying in her last few days, when talking to our wonderful carers, she repeatedly said, ‘thank you so much’ in her half-delirious state.”

Lewis shared that McCrory expressed her desire for him to find love again.

“Only a couple of weeks ago she said to us from her bed, ‘I want Daddy to have girlfriends, lots of them, you must all love again, love isn’t possessive, but you know, Damian, try at least to get through the funeral without snogging someone,’” Lewis' tribute read.

Despite her humor and her desire to “normalize” her death for her family, Lewis wrote that he was already missing McCrory.

“She’s shown no fear, no bitterness, no self-pity, only armed us with the courage to go on and insisted that no one be sad because she is happy. I’m staggered by her. She’s been a meteor in our life,” he wrote.

Lewis and McCrory married in 2007 after meeting while performing as Benedick and Beatrice in the William Shakespeare play “Much Ado About Nothing.” The couple shared two children: Manon, 14, and Gulliver, 13.

McCrory had an extensive acting resume and made appearances in film, television, and theater. Some of her work includes roles in three “Harry Potter” films, “Doctor Who,” “Penny Dreadful,” and “North Square.”

Lewis, 50, stars in the Showtime series “Billions.” He was nominated for a Golden Globe for the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” and appeared in the recent film, “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.”