Prepare for your hearts to break all over again, Gilmore Girls fans.
In her new memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl, published on Tuesday, Kelly Bishop opened up about many significant moments in her life — including when she had to say goodbye to her beloved onscreen husband, Edward Herrmann. For those who don’t know, the 80-year-old actress portrayed Emily Gilmore, the wife of the actor’s character Richard. They formed a friendship off-camera and remained close up until he died from brain cancer at the age of 71 in December 2014.
Even though Kelly and Edward were great friends, she had no idea about his cancer battle. In fact, she revealed in the book that she “hadn’t even known he was sick until one day a couple of weeks before he died.” The Dirty Dancing star only found out about his brain cancer diagnosis while reading a story about him and his business manager in the newspaper. Oof.
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Understandably, the news about her dear pal came as a big shock. Upon finding out, she “called” their co-star Lauren Graham, who played their daughter Lorelei, and the show’s creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, and they “struggled to even figure out what to say beyond, ‘Oh my God’ and ‘Please don’t let this be true.’”
Fortunately, Kelly got to say one last goodbye to her TV hubby before he died. In the memoir, the former professional dancer revealed she was one of a few people invited by his wife, Star Herrmann, to “say goodbye to Ed” in his hospital room in New York:
“It was so thoughtful, and generous, and touching of her; and while saying goodbye to Ed was one of the last things I ever wanted to do, I wasn’t about to say no.”
When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alum arrived at the hospital, she thought there would be “other castmates” but it was just family. Entering the room, the scene before her with Ed in a coma on life support had taken her aback for a moment:
“I think I just stood there looking at him for several seconds, trying to process the incomprehensible reality of it.”
So sad. It must have been difficult to see her friend lying there hooked up to a bunch of machines. Star then encouraged her to “talk to him.” Kelly knew she would forever “regret it” if she did not “summon up the courage to get past all those tubes and beeping monitors and focus on the fact that this was Ed lying there.” This was her opportunity to see her “great pal, my set buddy, my extraordinary ‘husband’ for seven years” one last time, and she wasn’t going to waste it.
Mustering up the strength to speak to Ed, Kelly chose to keep it “short and sweet.” She joked:
“I’ll bet [that] surprised him.”
What did the Broadway icon say to Ed in her final words? She mentioned a few people in their Gilmore Girls family: Lauren, Amy, and Alexis Bledel, who played their granddaughter Rory. Kelly recalled:
“I walked over to stand beside his bed, took his surprisingly [warm] hand, and told him that ‘Lauren, Amy, and Alexis sent their love.’ Then Star said, ‘You can kiss him goodbye.’ So, I simply kissed him on the forehead, left a lip print, and whispered, ‘Tell them that’s from me.’”
It is never easy to lose a friend. We are glad Kelly got the chance to say a final goodbye to him. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via Warner Bros. TV/YouTube]
