No More Love, Actually

After 22 years of marriage Colin Firth and his wife, Livia, have separated following a messy stalking scandal

- Kim Abrahams

Dripping and dreamy as he emerges from a lake in Pride and Prejudice. Hurt but hot after his girlfriend cheats on him with his brother in Love Actually. Dignified yet conflicted as the stuttering monarch in The King’s Speech.

Think of any movie with Colin Firth in it and his legions of fans will tell you one thing: he’s the ultimate British big-screen heart-throb. Whether he’s brooding, self-deprecating, funny or bumbling, he’s always had the ability to make people swoon – the real thinking film-lover’s crumpet.

But in real life the Mary Poppins Returns star is no ladies’ man. There’s been only one woman for him for more than 22 years: his Italian wife, film producer Livia Giuggioli.

Even when their marriage was rocked by scandal two years ago they seemed to put the pieces back together – until the recent shock announcement came.

Colin (59) and Livia (50) are splitting up but “they maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their children”, a terse statement read.

Although no details have yet emerged on what led to the final split it’s believed the drama in their past was a bridge too far to cross. And considering it involved infidelity, harassment and stalking, there was plenty of turbulent water under that rickety bridge.

Colin and Livia met in the mid-’90s on the set of the BBC mini-series Nostromo. Livia was working as a production assistant while Colin starred in the TV adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel.

The couple tied the knot in 1997 in an intimate ceremony in a 13th-century church set among forests and vineyards in Città della Pieve, Perugia, in the heart of Italy’s Umbria region.