Three days after John Dineen passed away from cancer, Michelle Dockery paid moving tribute to her fiance at his funeral service in Cork, Ireland.
The sad event took place a day after Dineen would have turned 35 years old and just a few miles down the street from the farm on which he grew up.
“I was honored to know John, to love him and be loved by him,” said the Downton Abbey star, according to The Irish Times.
“He was my friend, my king, my hero, my everything. We celebrate him, we honor him and we will miss him.”
Dockery was introduced to Dineen through her co-star Allen Leech.
He died while under hospice care on Sunday, following a difficult battle with a rare form of cancer that lasted most of the year.
The same newspaper confirms that Dockery also quietly sang the 1937 Oscar Hammerstein song “The Folks Who Live on the Hill.”
“John’s charm was legendary,” the actress added in her speech.
“He could persuade anyone to do what he wanted in the least pushy way possible – particularly the women. He had a presence that was electric when he came in to the room. He had a wicked sense of humor. He had a genuine interest in other people.”
We send our thoughts and prayers to all who knew John Dineen.