Hilarie Burton Morgan revealed that her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, was grieving his dad while filming their reunion on The Walking Dead: Dead City.
“Please forgive me if I get upset,” Burton Morgan, 42, said during an interview with People on Sunday, June 22, after reprising the role of Negan’s (Morgan) late wife Lucille. “I just watched it.”
Burton Morgan noted that it was “a really hard episode” to shoot, adding, “What people didn’t know is that, throughout this season, Jeff’s dad was dying. He had died, like, six days before we shot this scene.”
The actress got emotional about the tragic family loss.
“Watching this man that I love so much hold that grief and really have to focus at work and hold it together, I wouldn’t cry except I just watched it,” she noted. “It was really, really amazing to watch the person you love most in the world be able to do that.”
Burton’s father, Richard, died in July 2024 after a brief illness. Burton Morgan noted that her husband was given a couple of days off from filming so they “could go say goodbye to his dad” in California.
“He was able to channel a lot of the grief he was feeling for his dad into this episode while not letting anyone down,” she continued. “Everyone knew that he was dealing with this tragedy, but these storylines had been written well in advance. We had no idea when we got the news that his dad was sick that we would have to film this scene within days of seeing him for the last time. And we definitely had no idea this episode was going to air on Father’s Day. It was a lot.”
Burton Morgan added: “I wish people knew what was going on behind the scenes when they see someone’s work. Anybody who’s in this line of work is usually tapping into something hard. The thing he was tapping into was really hard, but also very fresh. Working when you’re raw like that is a special skill set.”
During the June 15 episode of the hit AMC show, Negan hallucinated his dead wife, Lucille, while trying to help a sick Ginny (Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon). He spent the episode reflecting on his past struggles — including his attempts to keep Lucille alive after a cancer diagnosis before she died by suicide.
Negan finally confronted the vision of his deceased wife after she initially appeared to be a thief. Negan apologized for failing to keep Lucille alive, which she disagreed with.
Burton Morgan, who started dating Morgan in 2009, originally appeared as Lucille in the season 10 finale of The Walking Dead. Viewers learned through flashbacks that it was Negan’s wife who inspired the name of his murder bat.
While reflecting on her return to TWD set, Burton Morgan shared how her and Burton’s 15-year-old son supported his dad as well.
“Our kids were there with us and in his trailer hanging out, so he could just be silly with them in between every take,” Burton Morgan, who also shares daughter George, 5, with Morgan, said. “Even when I wrapped, our son stayed with him at work and just shadowed the director and got to hang out with the camera crew. And so the balm that eases loss like that is being surrounded by the people who are still here and that we get to love on. Our son stepping up and being there for his dad at work was also a very cool turn of events.”
