Emma Thompson is finally opening up about the affair that ended her six-year marriage to Kenneth Branagh. Emma and Kenneth were married in 1989, but announced their separation in 1995 after he had an affair with his co-star, Helena Bonham Carter. The two met while filming Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994.
Thomspon, 54, spoke about the incident in the UK’s Sunday Times, saying the breakup is “all blood under the bridge.”
“You can’t hold on to anything like that. It’s pointless,” she said. “I haven’t got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago.”
Branagh, now 52, and Carter, now 47, begain their affair in 1994 during filming, and then had a public relationship after his divorce from Thompson. They dated until 1999.
Emma has moved on, though. She married actor Greg Wise in 2003, and now says she can see how her ex-husband fell for Helena in the first place.
“Oh we are [alike],” the “Saving Mr. Banks” star said of her and the fellow actress, who is now married to director Tim Burton. “Being slightly mad and a bit fashion-challenged. Perhaps that’s why Ken loved us both. She’s a wonderful woman, Helena.”
She also went on to say that the whole cheating experience made gave her fuel for her role in 2003′s “Love Actually.” “I’ve had so much bloody practice at crying in a bedroom,” Thompson said, adding, “then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer.”
As for Helena, she moved on with Tim Burton, and they have two children together. In 2002, Helena opened up about the affair. “Yes. I’m a habitual, serial home breaker, apparently,” she said. “It gets frustrating because I know the story and the truth of it. It is very hurtful and, frankly, some of the things I have been called are quite libelous. But it’s part of the price of being in the public eye.”
Okay then!
