‘I was completely blind’: Emma Thompson says she was ‘humiliated’ over ex-husband Kenneth Branagh’s affair with Helena Bonham Carter
Emma Thompson admitted she was “completely oblivious” to her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh having an affair with Helena Bonham Carter.
The infidelity ended the actress’ six-year marriage to the actor, whom she married in 1989, in 1995, just two years after they met on film.
Kenneth had an affair with Harry Potter actress Helena, 56, after they starred together in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994.
Honest: Emma Thompson admitted she was “completely oblivious” to her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh having an affair with Helena Bonham Carter
Emma told the New Yorker that she was “humbled” by the affair and shocked by the self-deception.
At the time she was filming Sense and Sensibility, for which she won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but news of their split had not yet been made public.
The Love Actually star said: “I was completely oblivious to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set. What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.’
The infidelity ended the actress’ six-year marriage to the actor, whom she married in 1989, in 1995, just two years after they met during filming (pictured in 1993).
Emma told the New Yorker she was “humiliated” by the affair and “doesn’t learn how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”
She added: “I was half alive. Any feeling of being a lovable or worthy person was completely gone.’
Emma explained in the interview that her Sense and Sensibility co-star and now husband of 27 years, Greg Wise, was the one who “picked up the pieces and put them back together.”
Emma and Greg married in 2003 and have two children together, a daughter Gaia, 22, and a son Tindyebwa, a former Rwandan child soldier whom they informally adopted when they were 16.
That same year, the happy couple married Kenneth and art director Lindsay Brunnock.
Incredible: Emma explained in the interview that her Sense and Sensibility co-star and now husband of 27 years, Greg Wise, was the one who “picked up the pieces and put them back together” (pictured in 2021)
Family life: Emma and Greg married in 2003 and share two children, a daughter Gaia, 22, and a son Tindyebwa, a former Rwandan child soldier who they informally adopted when he was 16 (pictured in 2018)
Helena has two children, Billy and Nell, with her partner director Tim Burton.
Emma has acted in two films with Bonham Carter in 1992’s Howard’s End and 2007 in the Harry Potter series.
Emma concluded, “I’ve learned more from my second marriage just because I’m married. As my mother says, “The first twenty years are the hardest.”
Moving on: Emma (left) starred in two films with Bonham Carter (right) in Howard’s End in 1992 and the Harry Potter series in 2007 (pictured in 1994)