“Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely,” Thompson told.
Emma Thompson separated from her first husband in 1995 after she found out that he was cheating on her. While she didn't comment much on the whole matter at the time, she recently opened up about the hurt she felt during the divorce. According to The New Yorker, the revered British actor shared that finding out about her then-husband's affair shattered her completely and also caused a lot of troubled mental health and a poor relationship with her own self. “Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely,” Thompson told.
Thompson's first marriage was with actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh. According to PEOPLE, Thompson and Branagh met when they were working together on the sets of BBC’s Fortunes of War. They dated for a while before getting married in 1989. However, the marriage didn't last to celebrate a decade of happiness after it fell apart by 1995. The couple grew apart after Thompson found out about Branagh's affair with the star of the movie he was acting and directing in 1994. Branagh began an affair with Helena Bonham Carter while shooting Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994. Branagh played the role of scientist Victor Frankenstein, while Carter starred in the movie as his adoptive sister and fiancée.
Recently, Thompson opened up about the pain she had to encounter upon being cheated on. “I was half alive. “I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set,” Thompson told The Telegraph. “What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.” Thompson made amends with Helena despite it all. “Helena and I made our peace years and years ago ... she’s a wonderful woman,” Thompson said. While Thompson didn't continue to hold strong feelings against Helena after she discovered the affair, she felt deeply heartbroken by his actions Branagh. Previously once, Thompson had also shared with Huffpost how one of the scenes from her movie Love Actually was inspired by her own life. Talking about a scene where the character she played in the movie discovers that the necklace her husband purchased was not for her, she said, “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.”
Recovering from the pain her ex-husband inflicted on her, Thompson bonded with Greg Wise, her co-star in the 1995's Sense and Sensibility Greg was with her during the testing time of the first few years after the divorce and helped her recover from the heartache. Thompson says that Wise "picked up the pieces and put them back together".The couple got married soon after they met, and have been in a happy marriage for 27 years since.
References:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/14/emma-thompsons-third-act
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2018/02/28/emma-thompson-acting-love-actually-betrayal-had-heart-badly/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/emma-thompson-love-actually-inspiration_n_5a96eb0de4b0e6a5230435ec
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) Kate Green; (R) Joe Maher
