Ralf Little has opened up about the tragic death of his sister Ceri, who was 14 years old when she fell 150ft from a cliff and died during a family holiday in Cornwall.
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Speaking on Radio 4 to presenter Reverend Richard Coles, the Death in Paradise star admitted that he was "filled with rage" following the devastating accident.
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Talking about the aftermath of her death, which happened when he was just nine years old, he revealed that he was distracted from grief by "activities". He said: "It was devastating. It’s incredibly difficult to recover from something like that, particularly as parents.
"Out of everyone in the family I was the one that was affected least because I was nine years old. Kids are quite resilient anyway, but I just had stuff to get on with, all these activities."
He went on to say that while he was "filled with rage", the anger pushed him to succeed in his academic career. "It could have gone either way," he said. "I could have gone to school and just had this massive meltdown, rebelling, and being angry. I know now I was absolutely filled with rage."
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He continued: "But I channelled that rage into getting all of life and giving it a kicking. So, my grades went up. My achieving excellence at school just like, I was on every team; I was winning prizes."
The death of Ralf's sister pushed him to succeed
Speaking about how the tragedy impacted his older sister, Rowena, he said: "Rowena, my middle sister, was very much Ceri’s shadow. She used to follow her around and do what she was told because she was the older sister and she loved her. I think she was quite lost for a few years.
"She just kind of had no guidance, really. She had no one to follow. Suddenly, she’s got to be the oldest and just go, ‘Where do I fit in the world?’"
He continued: "So, I think she struggled a lot more than I did. My parents struggled for about ten years and split up about ten years later. But I won’t blame them for that."
"Grief is such a difficult thing. People process it differently," he added.
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