Matthew BroderickAnd Jennifer Grey have rarely spoken out about their 1987 car crash that claimed the lives of two women — but that all changed when the Dirty DancingThe actress opened up candidly about the May 2022 accident that claimed her life.
“I was the sole living witness because Matthew had survived, but he was unconscious and had amnesia and was very badly injured,” the Out of the CornerThe identity of the author was revealed Entertainment TonightThe crash occurred in Ireland on a rainy night. Broderick was behind the wheel, and the actress was in the passenger seat. (The Ferris Bueller’s Day OffCostars were in a relationship at that time.
“I thought he was dead,” Grey continued. “I didn’t even know there were two other women who were tragically killed at the time. It’s just something that you just don’t come back from in the same way.”
The Red Dawn star further told the outlet that the head-on collision was one of the “top three traumas in my life, maybe top one.”
The fatal crash — which happened just days before Dirty Dancing was released — changed Grey’s life forever. “It’s very hard to describe when you have a near-death experience and are present for the death of other people,” she continued. “Being alone on a country road in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around or conscious was pretty terrifying … It led to so many other things in my life.”
Margaret Doherty, 63, and Anna Gallagher (28), were the victims of the crash.
Broderick, who pled guilty to the charge of careless driving and paid a $175 fine — but was never charged with vehicular manslaughter — was frantically worried about the victims of the crash immediately following the collision.
“He kept saying, ‘Did I hurt them? Did I hurt them?’” a member of the fire brigade recalled at the time.
“I think about the family in Ireland all the time,” Grey noted in her May 2022 interview with ET. The Producing FarmersAlum also does.
“It was extremely difficult coming to grips with what happened,” Broderick, who met with the surviving family members, confessed in 2002, though he noted that the passage of time — and therapy — has helped.
For his part: Martin Doherty, Margaret’s son and Anna’s brother, has forgiven the Broadway actor for the fatal accident.
“He didn’t kill my mother and sister deliberately,” he said in 2002 via the New York Post. “There were strong feelings at the time, but I have since forgiven him and feel no anger toward him.”
Scroll down to see everything Grey and Broderick have to say about the tragic accident
