Emma Thompson Reveals She's Forgiven Helena Bonham Carter for Affair With Kenneth Branagh

Actress said that the ordeal is "blood under the bridge"

By Lily Harrison Nov 12, 2013 7:53 PMTags
Helena Bonham Carter, Emma ThompsonAmanda Edwards/WireImage;Monica Schipper/Getty Images

It's all in the past.

Emma Thompson is opening up for the first time about what caused the end of her six-year-marriage to Kenneth Branagh back in 1995.

During an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, Thompson revealed that she's forgiven Helena Bonham Carter (and her ex-husband) for carrying on an extramarital affair.

The Saving Mr. Banks star shared that it's "all blood under the bridge. You can't hold on to anything like that."

She added, "It's pointless. I haven't got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago."

Bonham Carter and Branagh reportedly began their affair when they were filming Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1994.

And once the actor split from Thompson, he and Carter went public with the relationship, which lasted until they split five years later.

Despite that, Thompson claims that she has much in common with Bonham Carter.

"Oh, we are [alike], being slightly mad and a bit fashion-challenged. Perhaps that's why Ken loved us both. She's a wonderful woman, Helena."

Thompson's past seems to echo her storyline in 2003's romantic hit Love Actually.

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When asked about the famous scene, in which she discovers her husband is carrying on an affair, the Brit-born star admits that she pulled from her own experiences to help her get through the trying scene.

"I've had so much bloody practice at crying in a bedroom, then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer," she said.

But Thompson has since moved on and has been married to actor-producer Greg Wise for a decade. The two share daughter Gaia, 13, and adopted son Tindyebwa Agaba, 26.