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Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh were only married for six years, but the scandal that led to their split made headlines for decades.
The Love Actually actress and the Hamlet director met in 1987 while filming the BBC series Fortunes of War and tied the knot two years later. The duo were one of the most A-list couples in England at the time, collaborating several times during their marriage. Branagh directed his wife in a string of films released between 1989 and 1993: Henry V, Dead Again, Peter’s Friends and Much Ado About Nothing.
By 1994, however, their romance hit a serious speed bump. While filming his movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Branagh began a relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, who’d previously acted alongside Thompson in 1992’s Howards End.
Thompson and Branagh announced their split in September 1995, but at the time, they blamed their breakup on their busy work schedules. The Late Night actress had spent much of that year working on Sense and Sensibility, adapting the screenplay from Jane Austen’s novel of the same name and starring as lead character Elinor Dashwood.
After it emerged that Branagh had an affair with Bonham Carter, Thompson spoke candidly about how her ex-husband’s infidelity affected her. In February 2018, the Emmy winner revealed that the moment in Love Actually where her character, Karen, discovers her husband’s affair was inspired by her own experience.
“That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through,” Thompson said during a fundraiser for the Tricycle Theatre at the time. “I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So, I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it.”
After his split from Thompson, Branagh dated Bonham Carter until 1999. He later married Lindsay Brunnock, whom he met while working on the 2002 miniseries Shackleton. Thompson, for her part, married actor Greg Wise in 2003. The couple met while filming Sense and Sensibility, but at the time, Wise was pursuing their costar Kate Winslet.
“Before he did the job, he went to see a friend of his who was a bit witchy and she said he would meet his future partner on the film,” Thompson recalled during a December 2021 appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “He assumed it wasn’t me because I was married and quite a lot older than him, so he thought it might be Kate.”
Wise took the Titanic star on a date to the Glastonbury Music Festival, but the duo didn’t hit it off — and Winslet later told the Crown alum that he should pursue Thompson instead. “She pointed out that we were right for each other and told me that Emma’s marriage was over,” Wise told Express in July 2014. “It was all meant to be, just as my friend Helen had predicted.”
Keep scrolling for a complete breakdown of Thompson, Branagh and Bonham Carter’s messy past:
Credit: Dave Lewis/Shutterstock ; Fine Line/Renaissance/Kobal/Shutterstock
Breaking Down Emma Thompson’s 1995 Split From Kenneth Branagh After His Affair With Helena Bonham Carter
Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh were only married for six years, but the scandal that led to their split made headlines for decades.
The Love Actually actress and the Hamlet director met in 1987 while filming the BBC series Fortunes of War and tied the knot two years later. The duo were one of the most A-list couples in England at the time, collaborating several times during their marriage. Branagh directed his wife in a string of films released between 1989 and 1993: Henry V, Dead Again, Peter’s Friends and Much Ado About Nothing.
By 1994, however, their romance hit a serious speed bump. While filming his movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Branagh began a relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, who’d previously acted alongside Thompson in 1992’s Howards End.
Thompson and Branagh announced their split in September 1995, but at the time, they blamed their breakup on their busy work schedules. The Late Night actress had spent much of that year working on Sense and Sensibility, adapting the screenplay from Jane Austen’s novel of the same name and starring as lead character Elinor Dashwood.
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After it emerged that Branagh had an affair with Bonham Carter, Thompson spoke candidly about how her ex-husband’s infidelity affected her. In February 2018, the Emmy winner revealed that the moment in Love Actually where her character, Karen, discovers her husband’s affair was inspired by her own experience.
“That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through,” Thompson said during a fundraiser for the Tricycle Theatre at the time. “I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So, I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it.”
After his split from Thompson, Branagh dated Bonham Carter until 1999. He later married Lindsay Brunnock, whom he met while working on the 2002 miniseries Shackleton. Thompson, for her part, married actor Greg Wise in 2003. The couple met while filming Sense and Sensibility, but at the time, Wise was pursuing their costar Kate Winslet.
“Before he did the job, he went to see a friend of his who was a bit witchy and she said he would meet his future partner on the film,” Thompson recalled during a December 2021 appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “He assumed it wasn’t me because I was married and quite a lot older than him, so he thought it might be Kate.”
Wise took the Titanic star on a date to the Glastonbury Music Festival, but the duo didn’t hit it off — and Winslet later told the Crown alum that he should pursue Thompson instead. “She pointed out that we were right for each other and told me that Emma’s marriage was over,” Wise told Express in July 2014. “It was all meant to be, just as my friend Helen had predicted.”
Keep scrolling for a complete breakdown of Thompson, Branagh and Bonham Carter’s messy past:
Credit: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock
1987
Thompson and Branagh met while filming the BBC period drama Fortunes of War.
Credit: Shutterstock
1989
The Belfast director and the Oscar winner tied the knot after two years of dating. Though they worked together several times during their marriage, they tried to keep their romance relatively private and would not give interviews as a couple.
Credit: Tri-Star/American Zoetrope/Kobal/Shutterstock
1993
Branagh began production on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where he met Bonham Carter. The Northern Ireland native directed the film and played Victor Frankenstein.
Credit: David Appleby/Tri-Star/American Zoetrope/Kobal/Shutterstock
1994
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein hit theaters in November. “I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set,” Thompson told The New Yorker of Branagh in November 2022. “What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”
Credit: AP/Shutterstock
1995
Thompson and Branagh announced their divorce, citing scheduling problems as the reason for their split. The Death on the Nile star, meanwhile, was already dating Bonham Carter. All three actors later appeared in the Harry Potter franchise, but not all at once. Branagh starred as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, while Thompson appeared as Sybill Trelawney in Prisoner of Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix, and Deathly Hallows — Part 2. Bonham Carter, meanwhile, played Bellatrix Lestrange in Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and both parts of Deathly Hallows.
Credit: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock ; Dave Lewis/Shutterstock
1999
Bonham Carter and Branagh called it quits. “I didn’t really live with Ken. Did I work with Ken?” the Sweeney Todd actress quipped to The Guardian in October 2020. “I can’t remember anything, although there’s a reason the memory goes.” She later moved on with Tim Burton, whom she met on the set of 2001’s Planet of the Apes. The duo announced their separation in December 2014.
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2003
Thompson and Wise tied the knot after eight years together. The Cruella star later described her husband as the person “who picked up the pieces and put them back together” following her split from Branagh. “I’ve learned more from my second marriage just by being married,” she told The New Yorker in November 2022. “As my mother says, ‘the first twenty years are the hardest.’” (Wise and Bonham Carter, coincidentally, have both appeared in The Crown, though not at the same time — Wise played Lord Mountbatten in seasons 1 and 2 while Bonham Carter starred as Princess Margaret in seasons 3 and 4.)
Credit: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock ; Mediapunch/Shutterstock
November 2013
During an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times, Thompson described the drama with Branagh and Bonham Carter as “all blood under the bridge,” adding: “You can’t hold on to anything like that. It’s pointless. I haven’t got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago.”
Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock ; David Appleby/Tri-Star/American Zoetrope/Kobal/Shutterstock
October 2020
Bonham Carter used the same phrase as Thompson to describe the love triangle during an interview with The Guardian. “Me and Ken was very different from me and Tim,” the Les Misérables star recalled. “You know, Ken avoided directing me once we were together because it can be complicated and I think he didn’t want — anyway, that’s all blood under the bridge.”
Credit: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock
November 2022
Thompson opened up about the aftermath of her split from Branagh in a profile published in The New Yorker. “I was half alive,” she recalled. “Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely.”
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