Judi Dench pens emotional farewell to her ‘first true love’

She may be one of the biggest actresses in the world, but that hasn’t stopped Dame Judi Dench from paying her respects to the first man she ever fell in love with.

The 83-year-old penned an emotional letter to the Adelaide family of musicologist David Swale, according to an exclusive report by The Advertiser. The letter arrived just an hour before Swale was laid to rest and took his granddaughter, Chloe, by surprise.

Swale’s family had only discovered the romance between their beloved family member and the Philomena actress last year, when she spoke highly of Swale’s music and described him as the “first love of her life” in an interview. When they quizzed Swale on his relationship with Dench, he simply referred to her as “my love”.

Chloe, 17, sent an email to Dench after her grandfather passed away, letting the British actress know what had happened.

Promptly responding, the Murder on the Orient Express star explained how Swale was her brother’s best friend at St Peter’s School in the English city of York and said she’d first met him at the age of eight or nine.

“I was completely besotted by him,” The Advertiser reports her writing. “And he was without doubt the first person I fell in love with.”

One of Dench’s fondest memories of Swale, who died at the age of 90, was how well he played the piano.

“He used to play the piano beautifully and I remember that he marked the keys for me so that I felt as if I was playing as well,” she recalled.

Swale passed away on May 17 and his funeral was held on Tuesday. This isn’t the first time Dench has paid her respects to loved ones she’s lost. Last year it was revealed the Victoria and Abdul star turned her back garden into a shrine of sorts for all the close friends and family members she’d lost. She described it as a “memorial forest” on her BBC documentary, Judi Dench, My Passion for Trees.

“I’ve turned my six-acre garden into a secret woodland, and I see my trees as my extended family,” she said. “My life now is just trees. Trees and champagne.”

Although Swale was her first love, Dench spent many years with husband Michael Williams before he passed away in 2001. She said the pair used to plant trees whenever someone they loved died – a tradition she still continues to this day.

It is not known if a tree will be planted for Swale, although other stars who have trees in her garden include Williams, Natasha and Ian Richardson and Stephen Hanley.

What do you think of Judi Dench’s gesture? Do you remember your first love?