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Walton Goggins revealed visiting Thailand nearly two decades after his wife’s death in 2004.
The White Lotus 3 was filmed in Thailand. (Photo Credits: Instagram)
The White Lotus star Walton Goggins is opening up about a deeply personal chapter from his past, reflecting on his emotional return to Thailand — the country where his first wife, Leanne Knight, died by suicide in 2004 after going missing. Thailand now serves as the backdrop for Season 3 of the hit HBO series, where Goggins plays Rick Hatchett on a mission. Marking his first visit to the country in nearly two decades, Walton shared that this time felt entirely different, as he was accompanied by his now-wife, Nadia Conners.
Emphasising that he can eventually relate to his character, Walton told Vulture, “I went to Thailand 18 years ago after a trauma in my life, looking for peace, looking for some resolution that was not so dissimilar from what Rick was looking for. The circumstances were dramatically different. I was a year into a relationship with my now-wife, and I was as lost as Rick is lost. I had nothing for my partner. I understood, intimately, Rick’s frame of mind.”
Walton also spoke about the time when he first read the script for Season 3, adding that he believes there was a reason for him to visit Thailand. “I thought, 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,” he continued.
Elsewhere in the conversation, the actor revealed that he went on an emotional and spiritual path after his first wife’s death. “I had reached a moment in my journey predicated on the series of events in my own life at this time. I searched for three years and didn’t have an option to go forward as the person I was before this moment in my own life,” he added. He learned to forgive himself and found beauty in despair, further reiterating that his journey was similar to that of Rick (The White Lotus 3).
Returning to the show, a pivotal sequence in Thailand follows Walton’s character, Rick Hatchett, and his girlfriend Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood) as they embark on a mission to find the man Rick believes killed his father — only to discover that the man is his father. The White Lotus Season 3 is currently streaming on Max.