I honestly didn’t know much about Amanda Abbington before she was cast as Mary, Watson’s love interest and eventual wife, in Sherlock. I knew she was a British actress and Martin Freeman’s real-life partner and that they had been together for years and years. After she was cast, I learned more about her, like she’s worked consistently on British television for decades, and she’s probably even more respected within British-acting-communities than Martin. I also learned that they have two kids together, Joe and Grace. Well, sad news. Just as Martin and Amanda have to promote the new season of Sherlock, they also have to confirm their split. Martin said so in an interview with the Financial Times:
British journalists often treat celebrities as our parents handled vegetables — pressure-cooking them to the point where no texture can possibly remain. But with Freeman, you do hit rawness. Such as when we stumble onto the topic of his Sherlock co-star, Amanda Abbington.
“I’m not with Amanda any more,” he whispers about the partner/possible wife/possible ex-wife who he met in 2001, and with whom he has two children. “It’s very, very amicable — I’ll always love Amanda.” Later, I ask if success has made him happier. “To a certain extent, yes,” he says. “Not as much as it might have done, and not as much as maybe I would have hoped it had.” It comes across as a tender admission.
While this surprised me, looking back on it… the signs were there, right? Amanda went to the Emmys this year by herself. They looked uncomfortable filming Sherlock together earlier this year. They looked awkward during the premiere event this week. Still, it’s sad. They were together for 15 years! And they were famously unmarried too. I always wondered if that was difficult for them to play on Sherlock, having him propose and having to do the big wedding scene. Like, what if one of them actually did want to get married? Was that why they split? Sad.
Also – Martin’s whole interview with the Financial Times is a good read. He talks a lot about politics (he’s ride-or-die Labour) and what other actors are like (he basically says Ricky Gervais is an a—hole and that he could talk to Billy Bob Thornton for hours).
Photos courtesy of WENN.
😢
Nooooooooo
X 1,000,000
I cannot stand Ricky Gervais. He comes across as the most smug A-hole.
Anyway, too bad about Martin and his partner. People seem to act like unmarried couples last longer but I’ve seen no proof of this.
15 years isn’t nothing.
Unmarried couples last shorter times, there has been research about this. But people do not really seem to care. Not that 15 years is very short.
I would like to know how this research was done. I mean, of course unmarried relationships are going to be shorter because people date before they marry and it doesn’t work out with all but one of them. Did they give it a minimum number of years or something? Some people want to date 5 or 6 years before they even consider marriage so that could muddy up the numbers.
I’m so sad!!
Freeman gives the same statement most celebs do after a breakup, but for some reason, and unlike what happens in most cases, I believe him when he says the split was amicable. Maybe it’s because he was directly asked and he answered at the moment, as opposed to giving a joint statement via his publicist.
Plus, he just seems like an amicable guy. I feel so bad for them.
He’s actually very moody and difficult by his own admission. He gave a good interview to Entertainment Weekly around the time of The Hobbitt/Fargo.
She is also in Selfridges. Love her in it.
Sorry for her but I still loathe Sherlock.
She was so good in Mr Selfridge, best part of the show !! I’m not a fan of Martin, or Sherlock, but I love Amanda !!!
She was really good in Mr Selfridge!!
She’s also in Case Histories with Jason Isaacs. Talented actress who showed a lot of character progression & development in Mr. Selfridge.
The interview article was a good read.
She also does malteser commercials.
Oh shit, I had a feeling but it’s still a little unexpected. 2016 really keeps giving on that front too.
I broke up this year with my long term partner of 9 years…If you don’t nurture the relationship, you become codependent and feel like brother and sister. I suspect that may have turned into the case here.
Sorry to hear that and I hope your heart is on the mend.
Am sad to hear that esp as kids r involved but they seem mature enough to make it amicable. Sounds like they grew apart. Happens.
Very sad news
Aww. That’s sad. Didn’t see that one coming.
And he’s right; he’d get himself in a mountain of trouble if he were on Twitter. It’s good that he’s smart enough to recognize that.
I give up. 2016, you’ve taken so much.
Oh man, sorry to hear that. I thought they were solid together.
The weirdness around Abbington declaring bankruptcy while living in a multi-million pound house financed by Freeman has always made me sideeye her. But I still like her more than Freeman. He has nerve calling himself Labour considering his anti-multiculturalism, anti-diversity statements to the press.
That made me side eye him! Why didnt he help her??
I mean, if you are a family you take care of each other, right? It was weird.
And what did he say?
How could she declare bankruptcy if they are married? Isn’t that filed jointly? Plus, she’s worked steadily for years. Not sure how that could happen.
They never got married
@ H – it was over an unpaid tax bill.
Nah, when you declare bancruptcy then everything becomes a very striclty and formally organised process. You have to hand over everything you don’t need except basic stuff. That means under bancruptcy you can only keep so much of your salary and everything else goes to the creditors and that lasts for about 6 years, I believe.
For creditors bancruptcy is a “safe” process as everything is so tightly controlled and it is a way to get their money back.
If Amanda Abbington lived with Freeman while being bancrupt then the costs for a low rent would have been deducted from that little salary that she would have been allowed to keep. She lived in a nice home but she probably had no money for real.
On bancruptcy it is decided and negotiated how much you can pay back to the creditors. As Abbington did probably earn some decent money it is likely she paid it back in full. So I wouldn’t hold that against her.
Last but not least: most actors and artists and athletes who go bancrupt actually didn’t intend fraud or bad investments. But their accountants / money men did.
Where is Mike Tyson’s money?
Mike Jagger lost some dough to some finance man, too.
Rihanna.
And Willie Nelson got taken big time. Also, Billy Joel’s brother-in-law(first wife) was his accountant and played fast and loose with Billy’s money.
@Likabiltity Thank you! He’s a racist git and it’s one of the reasons I went off Sherlock (that and the ridiculous machinations of Moffat!). Can’t stand his nasal tones…
As for the bankruptcy issue, it really gets my goat when obviously wealthy people use the system to avoid paying out as they should. Just because you CAN avoid taxation/paying your bills, doesn’t mean you SHOULDN’T, especially in times of national austerity.
One more reason that 2016 is the worst year ever. ☹️️
This would dovetail neatly with Mary dying
What?? I’m really sad for them. 15 years and two children is a big commitment.
I thought her going to the Emmys alone was a bad sign, but this still feels upsetting. 15 years is a lot but still….
Hate to say, but give the skeptics credit. They saw this coming. Might give more creedence to their claims of Sophie and Ben not being undying love.
That’s really not true. It wasn’t “sceptics” claiming they’d split it was lots of different people across the board, and the rumours weren’t exclusively from Amanda hate blogs who spend 24/7 talking about how she’s basically Satan and photoshopping photos of her onto murder victims. I don’t think Amanda hateblogs even exist.
And rumours that Martin and Amanda had split, which was common knowledge, is hardly comparable to some grand conspiracy (that started basically the second the Internet’s Favourite Boyfriend announced he was engaged) involving evil blackmailers, fake celibate marriages, and movie stars being forced to carry around a plastic doll and pretend it’s his son who doesn’t actually exist who he’s been lying about.
It’s pretty awful to exploit Martin’s end of 15-year relationship to promote the Cumberstalkers’ narrative.
Thank-you Spiderpig. The dark corner of Tumblr is already trying to weave some conspiracy theory that James Rhodes/Hattie and Martin/Amanda’s breakups are due to the “shamwow”. It’s really an alternate reality there. Personally, I think it was just too much time apart. Martin’s been pretty much all over the place for his roles, 3 years in NZ. Amanda’s stayed in England, I’m sure to maintain a normal life for their children. I recall an interview with Martin around the time of The Hobbitt about what a strain on the relationship the separation was. When I saw all of his projects filming overseas, I started to wonder if there were going to be problems. Sadly, there were. Sad day. ☹️️
I don’t like Sherlock, and I was never a big fan of Martin Freeman either, but this is a sad thing anyway. :/ Also never realized that he was so big on the Labour party. I wonder how he copes with the sudden influx of posh folks in the acting industry as of late? It’s got to be weird for him, no matter how much they try to keep things civil.
@spiderpig no exploitation. Just saying, they said it and it was right. That’s it. No big conspiracy. They had been adamant even when some of their own disagreed, so I thought it important to point out. Someone once pointed out on here that there was no such thing as body language. Obviously, the skeptics saw something that the people that are commenting everywhere saying this came out of nowhere didn’t. Just a thought. Thoughts are harmless. Aren’t they?