The celebrated director of Oscar-winning film Gandhi is now too unwell to care for himself, according to his family. It had been reported that Lord Attenborough, 89, and his actress wife Sheila Sim, 90, had sold their house in Richmond, south-west London, for £11.5million. The couple are now being cared for full-time by trained staff at the home in west London. Yesterday their son Michael, 63, himself a successful theatre director, said: “The family home has been sold and he has been at a care home with his wife since then.” Selling the family home was a practical move, according to his brother, TV naturalist Sir David. He said: “It simply isn’t practical to keep it.” In a recent interview, Sir David, 86, said of his brother: “He is coming up to 90. He’s just not very well.” According to Lord Attenborough’s son, the director never fully recovered after a stroke in 2008 left him in a coma for several days. He has since been in a wheelchair and finds it hard to communicate and get around. It also emerged last year that Lord Attenborough’s wife is suffering from senile dementia. The couple also have a daughter, Charlotte. Their elder daughter Jane and her daughter Lucy were killed in the South Asian tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.is younger brother John, a retired motor industry executive, died last November aged 83 from a degenerative brain condition. After the loss of his daughter and granddaughter, Lord Attenborough said that he and his family found it hard to celebrate Christmas. He said: “The family is the focal point of our existence. And up until Jane and Lucy’s death, there were always 16 of us together for Christmas. “But we haven’t been able to manage that emotionally. I can’t bear to see the empty spaces at the table.”
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 21:06:14 +0000
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