Actor Rachael Stirling has responded to recent headlines portraying her as an "ash-guzzling savage" after she confessed to eating a few flakes of her mother Diana Rigg's ashes on opening nights. In a new book, All About My Mother, Stirling details the ritual, which she says has drawn reactions ranging from recognition to disgust. "I didn't expect to be portrayed as a matricidal cannibal by the press," she writes.
The confession and its aftermath
Stirling, the only child of the iconic actor Diana Rigg, who died during the Covid lockdown, says she wrote the book to bring her mother back to life. Rigg, known to younger audiences as the Queen of Thorns in Game of Thrones and to older ones as Emma Peel in The Avengers, was cremated with no ceremony, as she wished, and her ashes were to be scattered in places she loved.
After receiving her mother's remains in a scatter tube, Stirling found herself carrying the small container with her everywhere. On the opening night of Scandaltown at the Lyric in Hammersmith, a few grains of ash spilled onto her dressing table. In a panic, she licked her finger and ate them. "It didn't feel wrong, it felt completely right," she writes.
A private ritual made public
Stirling has repeated the act on every first night since, including at the opening of Private Lives in 2023, The Divine Mrs S at Hampstead Theatre, and Giant at the Royal Court in 2024, which transferred to Broadway this year. She says the ritual gives her confidence and a sense of her mother being with her on stage, where she belonged.
Reactions to her confession have varied. One widow at a party whispered, "I do that, too!" but others have grimaced or expressed disgust. Stirling acknowledges the behaviour is "secret animal behaviour," but insists she will not give it up. "Love made cannibals of us both," she writes. "It is natural! I'm sure it is, really! I promise I'm not going mad. It's what she would have wanted!"
