In 2020, Dominic West was carrying on an affair with Lily James in broad daylight. The were working together in Italy, and they were photographed canoodling and grabbing each other, and looking generally loved-up and sexed up. Dominic has been married to Catherine FitzGerald for years. She comes from a very aristocratic family, and her family owns Glin Castle. West and FitzGerald have kids together, and they managed to stay together for the sake of the castle and their kids although there were some bizarre moments back in 2020. Interestingly, West and FitzGerald move in royal circles too – West is an ambassador with the Prince’s Trust, and King Charles has been friendly with Catherine for years as well. One could even argue that casting West as then-Prince Charles in The Crown was a massive compliment to Charles too. Which brings me to this very strange story in the Mail about how Charles called Catherine when he heard about Dominic’s affair. Hmmmlmao.
To recap: in October 2020, West and James — who played father and daughter in the TV adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit Of Love — had been pictured looking more than cosy on a mini-break in Rome. They were snapped sharing a scooter, with West apparently nuzzling her neck, and in other pictures looked like a dreamy couple having a long lunch in the sun. After the pictures were published, he flew home to his wife Catherine FitzGerald in Wiltshire and the next morning the two of them staged an excruciating photocall — his wife’s red-rimmed eyes obvious to all.
They left a note for photographers which explained: ‘Our marriage is strong and we are very much together.’ The mother-of-four had a balled-up tissue tucked into the sleeve of her jumper.
West then started to prepare to play Charles, in the throes of a passionate (and adulterous) relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. It was a bold move, but spool forward 25 months and no wife could have looked prouder than Catherine FitzGerald at the premiere of series five of The Crown on Wednesday. It was very much a family affair — the Wests’ son Senan plays Prince William in this series — and his brother and sisters were present with their parents. It was also one of those hall-of-mirrors moments where life imitates art, for as we shall see, West and his wife know King Charles very well.
In fact, the King and West’s wife are particularly close, thanks to a shared love of horticulture and Georgian architecture.
It’s said that he actually called FitzGerald at the height of the Lily James crisis to offer his support.
A friend said: ‘Charles rang Catherine up when Dominic was photographed with Lily James in Rome, saying he knows how she feels, how beastly the papers are, how hard it is to be married in the public eye. All of that. Some of us thought it rather meddlesome. She and Charles have known each other for years, decades really. He has had her do gardens with him and so on. They share a lot of interests.’
“Some of us thought it rather meddlesome. She and Charles have known each other for years, decades really. He has had her do gardens with him and so on. They share a lot of interests.” I mean, it’s not really breaking news that British royals and aristocrats are all sleeping with each other all over the place. Catherine is sort of Charles’s type, right? She has the look of a young Camilla, only prettier. And Catherine is into gardens and garden designs. Would Charles? Yes, he would. Did he? Probably not. But I’m sure Charles did call and the old dog is probably up for it.
Photos courtesy of Netflix/The Crown, Sue Andrews/Avalon, JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon.
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- Dominic West and his wife Catherine West and their son Senan West at The Crown Season 5 World Premiere at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, UK, on 8th November 2022.,Image: 736047772, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Dominic West and his wife Catherine West and their children at The Crown Season 5 World Premiere at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, UK, on 8th November 2022.,Image: 736047786, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West photographed at the World Premiere of The Crown Season 5 on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 held at Theatre Royal Drury Lane .,Image: 736082547, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Dominic West and Senan West attends ‘The Crown’ Season 5 World Premiere at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, England. Tuesday 8th November 2022 -,Image: 736258716, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: The Crown Season 5 World Premiere, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Dominic West and his Family attend the Netflix World Premiere of “The Crown – Season 5” at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JF on Tuesday 8th November 2022. Picture shows (left to right) Dora West, Dominic West, Francis West, Senan West, Christabel West and Catherine Firtzgerald.,Image: 736509587, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Rights Managed, Model Release: no, Credit line: Sue Andrews / Avalon
Back up the truck: the man who visibly, audibly cheated on his wife FOR YEARS had the audacity to call a woman who’s husband was blatantly cheating to COMMISERATE with her over the press reporting it??!! I am torn between being gobsmacked and laughing hysterically. Even if this story is total bollocks, that the writers thought this would show Charles in a GOOD LIGHT??!?
Back up the 🚛. LMAO!
Seriously, this explains a lot about the pulling of punches in season 5 of The Crown.
Name change for this:
Oh I can top that, the woman my other half was having an affair with showed up to my home to sympathize with me as her (now ex)husband had cheated on her years previously. I felt very comforted by this woman who I had never met before offering her pity to me. Cheaters are a wild ride that live in a world of their own where they are always the victim.
Omg-I am so sorry that is horrible. They deserve each other-and you deserve a wonderful life!
Many years ago, the woman my then boyfriend was cheating with actually befriended me (he was her lawyer going through a contentious divorce). He suggested I invite her over for dinner as she was *having a hard time* (pun intended) after the divorce was done and I actually felt sorry for her. Hard time indeed, with my boyfriend. The day after I found out I left.
Hilarious!!
Holy cow, that was 2 years ago!? If you told me the West/James thing went down this past spring I would have been like yeah that feels right. Where has the time gone?
I was about to say! it feels like it just happened!
So Charles called a good friend when she was going through a really bad time? That seems pretty normal to me.
Nah, it was a fishing expedition to see if she was up for a bit of revenge gardening in his allotment, so to speak.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Okey-doke Tacky. Your name is a perfect description of how it looks for Charles, cheater extraordinaire, to call a woman who had BEEN cheated on, and tell her that he knows how AWFUL she must feel, because after all, he did much the same to his ex wife!
Tacky indeed.
OMG Chuckles, whaaatt?? Calling her while they’re still ‘very much together’ how regal
Aristocrats – They’re not just like us.
I’ve heard rumors that she’s Charles’ mistress
Now this I would believe. Charles has a type and she fits it perfectly particularly with the whole aristrocratic view on bedhopping.
Yes, the Brit Media has been calling FitGerald & Charles “special friends” for at least a couple of years. I always thought she was far more interesting than West, her cad of a husband. She is the aristo, it’s HER CASTLES, West can marry and stay there but she can also drop him like a used tissue.
She’s a landscape designer and years back Charles chose her to redo the landscaping for one of the royal castles, I think maybe in North Ireland. Charles has always had “special friends” with married aristos, it’s his MO. They’re “safe” and need privacy as much as he does.
Heard that rumour too! Catherine is lovely and their family home in Ireland is beautiful
Once again, Charles showing more support for “friends” than his own son, daughter in law and grandchildren. It has never “been said” that Charles reached out to Harry or Meghan to sympathise with the pressure of being in an extremely scrutinised INTERRACIAL relationship or to talk about the “beastly” press dehumanising their children (also he then goes and hires a member of that beastly press lol). Anyway I hope Harry goes surfing or plays polo during the coronation.
This……
@Afken – very very very good point! because if Charles HAD done the same for Harry & Meghan, you know he would have been calling the Fail to inform them of his magnanimous gesture, the second he hung up w/Harry.
Feel like the person most damaged by that story was always Lily James. She had cornered the market as the go-to A list Hollywood Sweetheart when that sweetheart needed to be British. It went directly against her public image.
I think the most damaged would be the kids and the betrayed wife. Lily made her own bed when she chose her path
This is hilarious, the world’s most notorious adulterer calls a cheated wife to *comfort* her? He probably called to encourage her to toe the aristo line and stand by her husband – darling, let’s blame the “beastly press” and not your cheater husband, the King commands it. After all you get a lot of gardening contracts from said King, so you should do as he says. And the grateful cheater husband should make an appropriately deferential declaration about Camilla when the time comes, of course. Think of the castle!
I must admit I am speed reading stuff today, but that title! I thought it meant, Charles phoned Dominic’s wife when he heard she was free for some kind of hook up. The old, I’m a shoulder to cry on trick.
Ah, but Charles has known her far longer than that. They have collaborated on royal landscaping some years back. Charles has always been a dog and she is landed gentry. She’s way younger though, I don’t know if she has ever fancied Charles, for certain they have a special relationship.
Hold up, what the … WHAT?? DW cheats on wife, the then-POW calls said wife to tell her he knows how it feels? He knows how it feels to be publicly be cheated ON? The couple stay together and within months DW is cast to play the POW in The Crown?
Well. This story deserves its own episode of The Crown. I’m only halfway thru Season 5 but I can’t help noticing how much I like DW’s version of Charles compared to the real thing. This explains quite a bit!
West’s wife always strikes me as lovely looking. Who knows what goes on in a marriage, all the dynamics, but I’ve lost respect for Dominic. I only watched The Crown because of the media storm but think I’ll avoid his stuff from hereon.
Did she cheat first? Might be the reason why they played happy family for the press and the marriage is still intact. Rule #1; be discreet. He broke rule #1.
They’ve had an open marriage for YEARS.
Seems a potentially damaging thing to say (as if she somehow deserved to be cheated on) with no proof when all accounts indicate she was the betrayed spouse. All West’s comments after the affair went public indicate West acknowledged he was in the wrong.
Up thread comment suggests she may have been more than a friend to Charles . When both partners cheat it’s the marriage that was damaged betrayed if they indeed had an open marriage.
I saw a documentary on their refurbished castle, she seems quite nice and proper.
He injected the humour.
I saw a documentary on their refurbished castle, she seems quite nice and proper.
Dominic chose to lighten the mood, she was quite smittened with him..
I love these photos from the premiere; particularly their youngest with her little elephant in a matching dress. What a cutie!
The FitzGerald-West family is beautiful!
The youngest with her stuffie in matching dresses is stealing my heart.
WTH? I might need to get off the Net today.
The BRF = Could ya make this stuff up?
The Aristos are goofy! At best.
Did you know FitzGerald’s first husband, an Earl, is now married to Rose bush’s sister? Hahahaaa
And that his aunt was the former Prince of Wales mistress before his relationship with Wallis Simpson for which he abdicated the crown.
So then she married a Hollywood actor who spends a lot of time away on set.
This is a way of life for aristos.
The only thing I’m surprised about is The King allowing his friend’s children to be in the tv series he hates so much, and her husband to pretend to be him!
Filthy old stout.
He was probably hoping she was up for a bit of revenge cheating. She definitely looks like a younger camilla.
I agree with LIONEL, this debacle deserves its own episode in The Crown. Good God. Do I think Dominic West’s betrayed spouse leaked this info to the rota rats? I don’t know, but I sure hope so. How insulting. As if it wasn’t bad enough to be publicly humiliated by her philandering husband, but the audacity of Charles to swoop in trying to play the hero? Gag me! Yes, the aristos are not like us, but I think the more accurate statement would be the aristocratic MALES are not like us. Lily James should have known better. I don’t necessarily like her, and I can’t stand some of the choices she’s made, as it’s a hardline to never, ever galavant around with a married man with children. BUT, Lily James lost her father, who she was close to in 2008. She took her late father’s first name, James, as her acting name, since another Lily with her last name was already in her actor’s union. Lily had just done a movie with that freak Armie Hammer, and had gone through a painful break up with Matt Smith. Dominic West played her father in the movie they made together. Men like Dominic West know exactly how to exploit and capitalize on a woman like Lily James’s pain, and I believe that is exactly what he did. It can’t be overstated how difficult it is for a young woman without a father to make her way in the world. Men flock to us like predators, and I know because I’ve experienced it myself.
Lily was about 31 when it happened. She had been a successful working actress for a decade or so. I feel for young women without fathers, but Lily really wasn’t young enough for that to be an excuse? She didn’t seem to be looking for a father figure with Matt Smith. The painful breakup might have set her back on her heels and made her regress, I guess. It happens. But still.
As for Armie Hammer, rumor is they flirted a lot on set and the crew noticed. She participated as much as he did. She didn’t know the extent of his creepiness (did any of us?), but she knew he was married with children. So, not cool.
They were both in the wrong. Dominic West has four young kids, so he was far more in the wrong, but that doesn’t make her any less complicit. They were so OPEN with it. I don’t know how either could have been so careless. Lily has been in some blockbuster films. I don’t find her at all distinctive as an actress, but she is undeniably recognizable. The whole thing was kind of sordid, especially since he has played her father TWICE. The other time was on stage near the beginning of her career. I think it was Othello.
Charles really lacks any self-awareness.