Judi Dench Shares Personal and Moving Way She Honored Friend Maggie Smith at Her Funeral

Mar. 15, 2025

Judi Dench and Maggie Smith share a laugh.Photo:Dave Hogan/Getty

Dave Hogan/Getty

Judi Denchis sharing one way she honored the life of her friend and fellow dameMaggie Smith.

Dench, who has been known in the past to plant individual trees in memory of her friends in her private forest at her home in Surrey,told the BBC in an interviewthat, on the day of Smith’s funeral, her gardener found a crab apple on the specific tree she had planted in Smith’s memory.“Joe, who works for me, came in, and he had one little crab apple,” she said in the broadcast, which aired on Dec. 28, Smith’s first posthumous birthday. “And so I had it in my pocket at her funeral, which was a very nice thing to have."

Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.Jon Furniss/WireImage

Jon Furniss/WireImage

Dench’s forest is filled with tribute treesfor entertainment figures likeAlan Rickman,Helen McCrory,Natasha Richardson,Stephen Sondheim, and more, theA Room With a Viewactress shared on an episode of British journalistLouis Theroux’sinterview series in November.The recent death of her friend and multiple-time costar has impacted theSkyfallactress, 90, deeply.In response to a question about theSept. 27 deathof her longtime friend at a Cheltenham Literature Festival event on Saturday, Oct. 5, Dench reportedly became overcome with emotion.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

During the festival, actor Brendan O’Hea asked Dench onstage what she meant when she had once compared grief to petrol,The Timesreported.“The last week has been tricky for you because you lost your great friends,” he said, referring to Smith, who died at age 89, andFrenzystar Barbara Leigh-Hunt, who died on Sept. 16 at age 88.

In a 2023interview withThe Times,Dench had previously saidthat grieving for her felt “unbelievably cathartic. You fortify yourself and use what you are going through as energy. Like petrol. It has helped me cope with the pain.”In addition to their longtime friendship, the two dames paths crossed frequently in their professional lives.

Dench starred with the late Oscar winner in 1985 filmA Room with a View, 1999’sTea with Mussolini, 2004’sLadies in Lavender, 2011’sThe Best Exotic Marigold Hoteland its 2015sequel.The two even carried their professional partnerships into different mediums — starring together in Sir David Hare’s playThe Breath of Lifeon London’s West End from 2002 to 2003.

Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in A Room With a View.Cinecom International/Courtesy Everett Collection

Cinecom International/Courtesy Everett Collection

source: people.com