Rachael Stirling says she nibbled a grain or two of Diana Rigg’s ashes after her mother died during the Covid lockdown. The actor and author says headlines turned that into a cannibal story, which is not what she described in All About My Mother.
“I’ve written a book about our relationship, All About My Mother, in which I do confess to nibbling a grain or two,” she said, adding that she did not expect to be portrayed as a cannibal. Stirling also said her mother was not earnest and was “honest, sometimes eye-bleedingly so.”
All About My Mother
The ashes detail sits inside a wider account of a daughter writing about a mother who had a 60-year career and became known as the Queen of Thorns in Game of Thrones, Emma Peel in The Avengers, and a winner of an Emmy and a Tony. Stirling said she followed Diana Rigg into acting, then wrote All About My Mother to bring her mother back to life on the page. Rachael Stirling ate Diana Rigg ashes before going on stage
The scatter tubes
Rigg had wanted no ceremony and asked for her ashes to be scattered in places she loved. Stirling said that after her mother’s death she found herself browsing scatter tubes, then settled for receptacles with the least offensive floral decor. That is the practical side of grief here: cremation choices, not a theatrical stunt.
Headlines and reaction
Stirling said the press turned a small, private gesture into something larger, with headlines describing her as a matricidal cannibal and using phrases like “Rachael Stirling eats mother Diana Rigg’s ashes before going on stage,” “strange habit only she really understands,” and “Dame Diana’s daughter admits eating her ashes in bizarre tribute.” She also said, “My mother was not earnest. She was honest, sometimes eye-bleedingly so,” which fits the bluntness of the book more than the tabloid version of the story.
The sharper read is that Stirling is not describing a recurring ritual but a single, bounded act: “a grain or two,” not the lurid version pushed by the headlines. If readers want the full frame, the point is the relationship she is writing about, not the fantasy built around it; the question left hanging is how many times, exactly, that private gesture happened.
