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I was blessed to know your daughter, Fiennes tells award-winner Vanessa Redgrave
Felix Allen8 Sep 2009
Ralph Fiennes paid an emotional tribute to the late Natasha Richardson when he presented an award to the actress's mother Vanessa Redgrave.
The Oscar-winning film star and veteran of the London stage was honoured with a lifetime achievement award in Harper's Bazaar magazine's Women Of The Year Awards last night.
Fiennes, who presented the award at a ceremony at the Dorchester hotel, said he was “blessed” to have known Redgrave's daughter, who suffered fatal head injuries on a ski-slope in Canada in March.
He said: “If I think of a woman of truth, of loyalty, of integrity, of passion, of compassion, a woman with a great heart and a woman of all elements, I think of Vanessa Redgrave.
“And if I just think of a fantastic, beautiful, sexy woman, I think of Vanessa.
“You might think I'm a bit in love but I'm just a fan and a friend, and if I am it's because of a great friendship I shared with Natasha and through that great friendship I've got to know Vanessa.
“Natasha was imbued with so many of your fantastic qualities as well as many of her own, and I feel blessed to have had that friendship, and thus through that friendship to have known Vanessa.”
Last month Richardson's husband Liam Neeson revealed he had become a US citizen because of the warmth of reaction from the American public following the tragedy.
Other winners included Amanda Staveley, who helped broker the sale of Manchester City football club to oil billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Marcia Kilgore, the founder of Bliss Spa and leg-toning footwear FitFlops, and the director of the Whitechapel Gallery Iwona Blazwick.
