Emma Thompson gets candid about the pain she felt years ago after discovering her then-husband Kenneth Branagh was cheating on her.
“I was half alive,” the famous British actor told The New Yorker in a profile posted this week. “Any sense of being a loving or worthy person is completely gone.”
Alliance Hesse/image via Getty Images
Thompson and Branagh met while co-starring on the BBC’s “Fortunes of War” and married in 1989, according to People. But in 1995, their marriage fell apart after Branagh began an affair with Helena Bonham Carter, whom he met while working on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Branagh directed and starred in the 1994 film as scientist Victor Frankenstein, while Carter played his adoptive sister and girlfriend.
DAVID APPLEBY/STILLS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
“I was completely, totally blindsided by the fact that he was having relationships with other women on set,” Thompson told The New Yorker. “What I’ve learned is how easy it is to be blinded by someone’s desire to deceive you.”
Thompson credits Greg Wise, one of her co-stars in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, with getting her back on her feet. Wise “took the pieces and put them back together,” she said. The two have been a couple for 27 years and got married in 2003.
Steven Ferdman/WireImage,)
Branagh and Bonham Carter dated for several years before splitting in 1999.
Thompson previously said her memorable performance in 2003’s “Love Actually” — in which her character discovers her husband has bought an expensive necklace for another woman — was inspired by her experience with Branagh.
“I was really crushed by Ken,” she told The Telegraph. “So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t quite like that, but we’ve all been there.”
But Thompson also made it clear that he has nothing against Bonham Carter.
“Helena and I reconciled years and years ago … she’s a wonderful woman,” Thompson said.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.