Jean Smart is opening up about her pain and confusion around her late husband’s sudden death.
On Thursday, People released a preview of the “Hacks” star’s interview with journalist Chris Wallace, which is set to premiere Friday.
In the clip, Wallace asked the “Designing Women” alum about the 2021 death of Richard Gilliland, her spouse of more than 30 years, and how “devastating” it was for her.
“The worst, the worst,” Smart replied. “It was such a shock. It was so unexpected.”
Though Gilliland died of a heart condition, Smart said she initially thought that he “had COVID or something.”
“The places I took him to, to get him tested, didn’t do anything except a COVID test,” Smart said, recalling the treatment Gilliland received amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After he died, she decided to go “back to one of those places” to confront the person who was in charge there.
“I said, ‘Let me ask you something,’” Smart remembered telling the medical professional. “I said, ‘If I brought my 71-year-old husband in here, who was complaining of pain when you take deep breaths,’ and I said, ‘What would you do for him?’ He said, ‘Well, the first thing we’d do is an EKG [electrocardiogram].’ I said: ‘He died last week. Why didn’t you do that?’”
Smart first met Gilliland when he was cast in the recurring guest role of J.D. Shackelford on “Designing Women,” appearing on the show from 1986 to 1991.
“I met him when he was kissing someone else,” Smart said as she laughed during a 2017 interview, referring to Gilliland playing the love interest of one of her co-stars’ characters.
The couple married in 1987 at the home of fellow “Designing Women” actors Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook. They later welcomed two sons.
Although Smart still has her children, she told Wallace that the grief she’s felt from the loss of Gilliland has been difficult, and that she’s only begun to move on from his death in the past year.
“I’ve lost a sibling. That’s a different, whole different experience. Losing your mate of 35 years — I mean, literally half my life I lived with him — is kind of indescribable,” Smart said. “You go through this period of thinking it’s just not real. It’s just, this isn’t real, you know? This just doesn’t make any sense.”