Mariel Hemingway, actress, and granddaughter of late novelist Ernest Hemingway opened up about her reliance on God to help her deal with her family’s dark past.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Mariel Hemingway, 61, shared how her faith in God helped her cope with the suicides of her famous grandfather in 1961 and her supermodel sister Margaux Hemingway, who died in 1996.
“I did suffer tremendously. I had depression probably most of my life… My belief in God has been a cornerstone for me… It has helped me understand the things that I came from,” the Oscar-nominated actress said.
Hemingway added that while she came from “an amazing family,” she also witnessed how alcoholism, depression, addiction, and suicides along with “very serious mental illnesses” created havoc within her family, which she said she was “deeply afraid of.”
She shared:
“My belief in God and my belief in prayer and connecting with the God within and your inner voice – that has always been… a saving grace for me and a good path for me. It reminds me that all of this is so interconnected. I believe in lifestyle. I believe in connecting to the Earth. I think nature is… God’s expression of how beautiful where we live is. We need to protect that. And we also need to connect to that because we’re so much a part of it.”
Following his battle with depression and anxiety, Ernest Hemingway died from a self-inflicted gunshot three months before she was born and just shy of his 62nd birthday, according to Fox News Digital.
Hemingway explained she “knew a lot about” her grandfather “in a way” but wasn’t aware that he took his own life until she was 16 years old.
“I didn’t realize where he had taken his life. And it was in the hometown that I grew up in, Ketchum, Idaho,” she noted. “He took his life there.”
Continuing, she said, “Stories were like mythology… You heard about it, and it was… a part of your life, but you weren’t completely sure.”
'A CORNERSTONE': Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter @MarielHemingway explains how her faith in God has helped her overcome depression and understand her family's tragic past. https://t.co/1m5xvQPAL1 pic.twitter.com/ES3IkHhRXu
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 20, 2023Hemingway plays the mother of a country music star in the new PureFlix movie, “God’s Country Song,” who finds out he has a son after the boy’s mother dies. She shared how the film resonated with her own life.
“’God’s Country Song’ is such a wholesome story, but it deals with… addiction. You know, using alcohol to self-medicate the pain we go through in life or things we can’t deal with,” she expounded.
Additionally, she said the storyline “felt so touching” to her was because she does “a lot of work for mental health.”
“And any time you can get the message out there, especially through scripted work, it just seems to land really well… There are so many superhero films out there that are wonderful, but I think a more family-oriented story connects with me. And I think it connects with so many others, too,” she said.