Anna Chancellor has laid bare the grief of losing her “brave” and “extraordinary” only child, Poppy, to leukaemia.
The daughter of the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor died in September 2023, aged 36. The illustrator was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in May 2023, after recurring infections from having her wisdom teeth taken out led to more tests.
Chancellor, 59, says her daughter was practical, making a “death plan” on the same day, and had “no bad vibes” about the experience.
However, grief has been difficult for The Split star, who has found herself crying everywhere in public, as she opened up about rebuilding her life after the loss.
“In a way, when you’ve lost your child you are given a bit of a gold card,” she told The Times. “People expect it. And what’s been lucky for me is that I have had the ability to go out in public and cry wherever.
“There’s nowhere I’ve been where I haven’t broken down. I’ve cried on trains, really cried, and no one’s noticed. No one was looking because I am middle-aged and I am invisible.”
With Poppy’s father Jock Scot dying of cancer in 2016, (the couple split when their daughter was four years old), she says her family is now made up of people not related to each other, with husband Redha Debbah, son-in-law Jonny, and Poppy’s half-sister, Tara.
“We’ve had to renew. We’ve had to create a new family, all four of us,” she said. “At Christmas now, none of us are actually related to each other but you have to make it work. You have to make choices to make things work.”
Speaking about getting through to the other side of bereavement, she said: “So something like that, you are either going to crumple or you are going to carry on. I feel in some strange way it’s been the making of me as a person. I’m certainly hoping it will have opened me up as an actress.”
Poppy joined her mother in preparing for her own funeral, choosing horses and plumes during a visit to a funeral director, as Chancellor says “she was rigorous with her dying”.
“She had life insurance. She had every relationship sorted, every amend made, no bad vibes. She was so brave, she was extraordinary. Her friends loved her. She just seemed to find joy and art and beauty in things. When she was told she had leukaemia, she turned to me and her husband [the music manager Jonny McKenzie-Wynne] and went, ‘Why me? I’m a laugh.’ And she was.”
Chancellor comes from an aristocratic lineage with ancestors including Jane Austen as well as cousins who include Helena Bonham Carter and Dolly Wells. She got pregnant aged 16 and in drama school.
“I can’t quite believe I was Poppy’s mum: how did I do that?” she said. “I think I followed my instincts. I got pregnant when I was at drama school. Everybody thought I shouldn’t, [Jock was a] total alcoholic nutter, but my instinct was so strong. I didn’t even know why I was so determined to have this child but I was.”
