Reflecting on a dark time. Emma Thompson opened up about her split from ex-husband Kenneth Branagh, who had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter during their marriage.“I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set,” the Oscar winner, 63, told The New Yorker in a profile published earlier this month. “What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”Thompson and Branagh, 61, tied the knot in 1989 after two years of dating.

They announced their separation in September 1995, citing their conflicting work schedules as the reason for the split. It later emerged, however, that the Belfast director had begun a relationship with Bonham Carter, 56, while the duo worked on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994.“I was half alive,” the Love Actually actress recalled of the period following the split. “Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely.”The Emmy winner moved on with actor Greg Wise, whom she met while working on the 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Thompson and the Crown alum, 56, wed in 2003 after eight years together.Wise “picked up the pieces and put them back together,” Thompson told The New Yorker, adding: “I’ve learned more from my second marriage just by being married.

As my mother says, ‘The first 20 years are the hardest.’”After his split from Thompson, Branagh dated Bonham Carter until 1999.

Emma Thompson Felt ‘Half Alive’ After Learning of Ex-Husband Kenneth Branagh’s Affair With Helena Bonham Carter

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