Kate Winslet is on her third husband, and I only just realized that she’s been with him for seven years. It feels like it was just yesterday that Kate up and married a guy who had changed his name to Ned RockNRoll. Ned was always posh and moneyed – they met each other through billionaire Richard Branson, who is Ned’s uncle. But Ned seemed to eschew those double-barrelled names of the aristocracy and the “traditional” birth names of the employed. He was his own man! He and Kate welcomed their first child – her third overall, but her first with Ned – in December 2013. They named the boy Bear. Avant-garde, oui? Ned RockNRoll was not here for your traditional NAMES, people. Except now he is. He’s changing his name back to his birth name, Edward Abel Smith.
They have been happily married since 2012 and the pair welcomed their first child together in December 2013. And now as Kate Winslet, 43, and Ned Rocknroll’s, son Bear Blaze, five, is growing older, the actress’ eccentric husband has reportedly decided to reverse his name change from 2008. According to The Sun Richard Branson’s nephew, 41, has changed his name from Ned Rocknroll back to Edward Abel Smith as ‘he wants to set an example’ alongside not wanting to embarrass his son.
A source told The Sun: ‘It was always a bit of a joke. He is a very happy-go-lucky person. He never takes life that seriously but sometimes life changes and now he wants to be a bit more serious. He decided to change it back to Smith because he is now a dad and wants to set an example. Kate also felt it might be embarrassing for their child as he got older.’
MailOnline have contacted representatives for Kate for comment. Ned, who wed Kate in an intimate ceremony in New York shortly before Christmas 2012, had previously been married before to British socialite Eliza Pearson and their union lasted two years.
“Kate also felt it might be embarrassing for their child as he got older…” Honey, you married him knowing he changed his name legally to Ned RockNRoll. That would be a dealbreaker for most women, but there you were, marrying him and becoming Mrs. RockNRoll. I mean, good for Kate that it only took her SEVEN YEARS to convince Ned to change his name back. But good lord. Incidentally, though, Kate never changed her name with any of her marriages. While Mia and Joe have their fathers’ surnames, Bear’s legal name is Bear Winslet, not Bear Smith or Bear RockNRoll. I wonder if Bear’s in for a name change too?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
I’d dig this story if he’d changed his name to Ned Death Metal…
Lol…. somewhere, Justin “edgy” Theoroux is wondering how long he can wait until he changes his name from Theroux to RocknRoll without seeming like a copycat.
“not wanting to embarrass his son” Oh, FFS, you called that poor child Bear Blaze. *eyeroll*
Right?
I was thinking that “Bear Blaze Smith” wouldn’t be too bad a name. The ordinariness of “Smith” would balance out “Bear Blaze,” and the combo would be interesting.
It’s all fun and game until you wake up and realized that you are over 40 and a parent to 3 children.
I see them splitting up at some point.
Me too. I think the average for Kate is about 7 years regarding relationships. She could be getting that itch.
In fairness, the end of her second marriage after 8 years appears to have had more to do with her husband’s affair with Rebecca Hall than any “itch”. She has a messy starter marriage in her mid-20s that ended after 3 years and then her second husband of 8 years cheated on her. Bad luck but not really a pattern.
Not really a fair assessment considering her second marriage ended because her husband was cheating on her.
I don’t like Kate as an actor (very overrated) but her first “starter” marriage was semi toxic in a way. She dropped hints about how he was insecure about her success relative to his and told her not to take on big roles.
At the time, I wondered about the mental issues of a guy who as an adult (?) chose RockNRoll for a surname. Glad Bear can now just introduce daddy as Mr. Smith.
All 3 of Kate’s diamond earrings are gorgeous.
Lol you have to wonder why he even changed his name to something so stupid in the first place. I’m assuming he chose Ned because that can be a nickname for Edward, his birth name, right?He probably already went by Ned in the first place and just replaced his last name with something stupid. I think I read somewhere he thought people took themselves too seriously and that’s why he did it, completely missing the point that if you change your name legally to a stupid name people will not take you seriously and always consider you a joke hahaha. I love how it always takes for people to have a kid to realize their life choices were incredibly dumb .
I know some people who changed their names, my grandmother being one of them. She was born Margaret Lois, hated the name Margaret and always went by Lois so she reversed her name to Lois Margaret. Which we never understood because Margaret is a far prettier name than Lois! (Sorry Superman fans).
All I remember re: nedrocknroll and Kate is that Kate saved Branson’s granny from a burning building. I was/am in a bit of awe of her.
I have a feeling they had an agreement he would eventually change it back. It just took him forever to do it. Also I’d like to point out that Kate gets a LOT of flack for having been married three times. But no ine seems to talk about the glaring fact that the reason her second marriage split up is because hee husband was having an affair with Rebecca Hall. Not a Winslet apologist but that needs to be mentioned more.
For whatever reason, I really like her.
They should thank bear grylls that the name isn’t as ridiculed as it would be.
Is Richard Branson posh? For some reason I didn’t think so. Rich, yes; but posh? Hmmm… can someone British enlighten me please? Smith doesn’t sound posh to me either.
I just wrote a carefully thought out helpful response……and realised (a bit late in the time of one’s life) that I’m a culture snob.
*I* know who I think is posh, and what makes them so (leaving aside persons like top dukes and so on, who need no mediation) …….but I’m not sure I should investigate too deeply!
But yeah, I think Branson probably qualifies as posh all along, and it doesn’t depend on vast wealth , or Madonna would be posh and clearly she is not. (I guess that PhD thesis has been attempted many a time! 🤐)