Emma Thompson’s daughter has taken a brutal swipe at Kenneth Branagh – her mum’s ex.
Thompson and Branagh were married for six years – from 1989 until 1995 – after first meeting in 1987 while filming BBC series Fortunes of War. They starred in numerous films together, including Branagh’s very own Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.
However, in a turn of events that helped inform her character in Love, Actually, Thompson was left blindsided by Branagh’s affair with Helena Bonham Carter.
At the time of their divorce, they cited conflicting work schedules for their marriage dissolution, but Thompson went on to reveal that she had actually discovered Branagh was having an extra-marital relationship with Bonham Carter while she was starring in his film, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
She told The New York Times: “I was utterly, utterly blind 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.”
She added that, after making the discovery, she felt “half alive”, stating: “Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely.” It was Greg Wise, with whom she has been married to since 2003
Their daughter Gaia issued a takedown of Branagh on Instagram while sharing a still of the actor alongside her mum in the film Much Ado About Nothing.
Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter
In a reference to Greta Gerwig’s 2023 blockbuster Barbie, Thompson captioned the image: “She’s everything, he’s just Ken.”
Thompson previously said that her experience of being cheated on helped when it came to film scenes for Richard Curtis’s 2003 film Love, Actually, describing it as “practice”.
“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 in February 2018.
“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.”
In November 2013, Thompson said that she had made “peace” with her Branagh, tellingThe Telegraph: “Helena and I made our peace years and years ago.” She told The Sunday Times that same year the affair was “blood under the bridge”.
Branagh and Bonham Carter stayed together for six years, splitting in 1999.