The White Lotus’s Walton Goggins Reveals He Grieved The Death Of His Wife in Thailand
April 9, 2025 – Walton Goggins reveals how filming season 3 of The White Lotus in Thailand reminded him of grieving the death of his wife.
After The White Lotus’s finale, many of the actors have taken the time to reflect on their experiences during filming. Walton Goggins, who played the Hawaiian shirt-wearing Rick Hatchett, opened up about how returning to Thailand took a huge emotional toll on him.
Goggins had first gone to Thailand twenty years ago, after losing his first wife to suicide. In an interview with GQ, he revealed how travelling had helped him cope with and grieve his loss.
“I spent the next three years looking for an excuse—not to end it, but certainly putting myself in situations that were questionable, not with drugs or anything like that, just life experiences and traveling,” he told the publication. “And I really went all over the world.”
Filming in Thailand was Cathartic
In the interview, Goggins explained how a wave of memories and emotions came back after returning to Thailand to film The White Lotus. The biggest surprise for him was when he started filming at the Bangkok hotel, and he realized he’d already been there before. “That’s where I was the very first day I came here, 20 years ago, and in so much f—king pain,” he told GQ.
Today, Goggins is married to his second wife Nadia Conners, with whom he shares his 13-year-old son Augustus.
Knowing where he is now, The Righteous Gemstones actor can’t help but reflect on his past. He wishes he could go back in time to meet his past self. “I thought, God, I wish I could hug that guy. I wish I could whisper in his ear, ‘You’re going to be okay. Life continues, and it continues for everybody if you can just hold on and lean into it and keep walking the walk that you’re walking, and keep looking for the answers,’” he told the publication.
Goggins Felt Close to Rick’s Character
Having experienced his own “trauma”, Goggins told the Vulture that he intimately understood “Rick’s frame of mind.” He was immediately convinced that there was a reason he was playing Rick: “The universe brought this to me for a reason, because I understand him, and I love him, and I love people like him. I don’t think he’s alone in the world.”
After an emotional moment of redemption where Rick finally smiles on The White Lotus, Goggins headed to Instagram to post the following message: “It took me 6 months and 7 episodes of this story to Smile. Patient. I knew this day was going to come the first time I read it. I knew getting there would be his own Mt Everest. Rick earned every inch of it. Serenity. Peace. The boogeyman has no closet to hide in if we open all the doors. One brick at a time we rebuild. We all have to start somewhere.”
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Published by HOLR Magazine
Image Credit: @waltongogginsbonafide Instagram