It’s strange for a middle-class American girl – like me – to pass judgment on the British upper class. They have their own way of doing things, which I came to realize as I obsessively read about Price Charles and Princess Diana. Prince Charles’s long-standing affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles was, to me, a case study in how profoundly strange the British upper class is. Charles could have had his pick of any number of young, pretty aristocratic daughters, and was married to to one of the most beautiful women in the world. But he chose Camilla, bless his weird heart.
I bring up the Charles-Diana-Camilla dynamic because I was reminded of the weird British upper class when I read this story about Michael Gambon. Gambon is a very talented Irish actor (though a British citizen), known mostly in America for his work in the Harry Potter films and for his character work in such films as Layer Cake and Gosford Park. He’s also one of the great stage actors working today – he was even knighted by the Queen in 1998 for his services to drama. Technically speaking, I suppose he’s not really the British upper class, but the seems to be the society in which he rolls, so that’s how I think of him.
Michael Gambon has been married to his wife, now Lady Anne Gambon, since 1962. They have a son together, the 44-year-old Fergus. All of this hasn’t stopped Sir Michael from not only carrying out an affair, out in the open, but from starting a family with his mistress. His mistress is named Phillipa Hart, and she just gave birth to her second child with the 68-year-old Gambon:
Harry Potter star SIR MICHAEL GAMBON is a dad again — aged 68.
Sir Michael, who plays Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, had the child with his mistress. His wife knows he is raising a second family and he splits his time between their two homes and a bachelor pad in London.
The baby — named William — is the second Sir Michael has had with 43-year-old set designer Philippa Hart. Their first, Michael, was born in May 2007.
The actor, also has a 44-year-old son with his wife, Lady Anne.
A family friend said: “Philippa gave birth at a London hospital without complications and little Michael is a beautiful bouncing baby. It is a very strange set of circumstances worthy of a film script in itself.”
“But Michael is open with his wife and she accepts the second relationship, though there have been rows in the past.”
Sir Michael shares a house with his wife of 45 years in Gravesend, Kent. He visits Philippa in Chiswick, South West London, “a few times a week”.
He is a private man — described by friends as “delightful” to those close to him but with a “very short temper”.
He joined the Potter films in the third instalment, The Prisoner of Azkaban, after original Dumbledore RICHARD HARRIS died.
The next film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, is out next month.
[From The Sun]
I suppose it’s none of our business. If Lady Anne is okay with it, we should be too. But it just seems profoundly weird. If you want to live with your mistress, why not just divorce your wife and start another family? Why the whole two-family thing? The whole “he spends a few nights with his wife, then a few nights with his mistress” thing? Michael Gambon was raised a Catholic, and I wonder if he still practices to the extent where he thinks divorce is some kind of sin. In the light of his mistress giving birth to a second child, I can only guess that if that’s the case, Gambon feels he only has to adhere to the letter, not the spirit, of church doctrine.
Michael Gambon is shown below with David Walliams on 9/29/08. He is shown in the header on 4/3/06. Credit: WENN.com.
That is very strange, I agree. His mistress is younger than his son (well, his oldest son). I hope his wife has a much younger companion she gets to see several times a week also…
Surely money is not a factor for the mistress to procreate and the wife to put up with it…
I guess that old saying is true “more wrinkles, more fun!”
Who knew Dumbledore was such a Pimp?
To Kaiser:
Regarding Prince Charls and Camilla Parker-Bowles
It’s NOT WEIRD, it’s love! You can have millions of most beautiful people wanting you if your heart want’s certain one (and not so beautiful one).
Michael Gambon can do no wrong. Could not care less what he gets up to off-screen. His life, his business.
“he only has to adhere to the letter, not the spirit, of church doctrine. ”
Uh, he seems to be forgetting the whole “thou shalt not covet” business. Kind of an important one there.
Baaahahahahahahaha…. *tears rolling down my eyes at the thought of Gambon being “upper class”*
Sorry, but he’s origianlly from Cabra on the Northside of Dublin. Now you get many people who are the salt of the earth and absolutely decent and fantastic company, and whilst it’s not a scummy area, it’s still pretty working class.
But yeah – what Geronimo said. His character in “The Actors” (where he plays a Northside Dub), is my favourite.. him talking about going respectable and buying a kettle and lino cracks me up every time 😆
And congratulations on the new addition to the extended family to boot 😛
Camilla is meant to be a pretty likeable person and was seemingly very vivacious and funny when they met in the 60s. And I am embarrassed that as a republican (in the correct sense, not in the political or nationalist way), that I know that. If Wills and Harry like her and their stepbrother and sister, the rest of us can f*ck right off.
dude i just don’t think you should be siring children at 70
A bit like that Mormon sect in southern Utah.
GROSS!!!!!!
lol, amazed he can even get it up at 68 years old and that there’s actually someone out there lets him shag her. gives a whole new meaning to the “elder wand.” LOL. 😛
“…he splits his time between their two homes and a bachelor pad in London.”
My god, I wish I had HALF the time this man has, if he’s capable of splitting his time between THREE lives — one as an old married dude, one as a sugar daddy with two babies, and one as a dandy bachelor! Quite the life.
Why do you call him upper class? Because he has a knighthood? His background is solidly middle class – engineer father, seamstress mother.
I believe it is very offensive and disrespectful to his wife what he is doing to her – where is the love and respect? Even if his wife says she is fine about it, we don’t know how she truly feels inside, she may be really hurt about it and naturally anyone would. It isn’t acceptable but because this is a society where people agree with wrong and a society that calls wrong right (just merely because of “trying to respect other’s business”) – just call it what it is: It’s WRONG and shameful and an insult to the idea of love and marriage. People’s feelings and love ought to be honored and it should be honored by faithfulness, not openly cheating on your wife and fathering illegitimate children, because that is exactly what it is. I don’t want to judge the man but he is insulting not just his wife but everyone out there who believes in devoted love.