Greg Wise’s wife Emma Thompson on infidelity ‘horror’: ‘Monogamy is an odd state’

Greg Wise and his professional partner Karen Hauer bowed out of Strictly Come Dancing last week as they became the third couple to be voted off. Taking to Instagram earlier this week, he said “I don’t think I’m a dancer really!” and said he was “thrilled” to have been given the opportunity. Greg and Karen came up against Loose Women’s Judi Love and her partner Graziano Di Prama in the dance off, but were ultimately voted off.

Week five of the hit show kicks off tonight at 7:05pm on BBC One.

EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis is the red-hot favourite to win with bookmaker William Hill, followed by Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite and TV presenter AJ Odudu.

Greg will likely be watching on from home with wife Emma Thompson this week. 

The pair met on the set of Sense and Sensibility, and tied the knot in 2003. They have one daughter, Gaia, and an “informally” adopted son, Tindyebwa Agaba.

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Emma and Greg have been happily married for nearly 20 years, yet Emma said monogamy is something of an “odd state” and finds the “disbelief and horror” of infidelity unrealistic.

The Golden Globe and BAFTA winning actress made the remarks in a web chat on parenting forum Mum’s Net eight years ago.

She said: “I do think that monogamy is an odd state, and actually I think it’s an odd state for women.

“I think that we’re locked into certain ideas and certain romantic ideals that have shaped our thinking about relationships for some time.”

Emma said she wondered whether there are “alternatives”, and about “whether our fury and rage and disbelief and horror about infidelity is quite realistic”.

Emma met her first husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh, in 1987 while filming the Fortunes of War series. 

They were dubbed a “Golden Couple” at the time, but separated in September 1995, citing work schedules as the reason behind the split.

However, it later emerged that Branagh was having an affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter. In a 2013 interview, Emma said it was “all blood under the bridge”, adding she and Helena “made our peace years and years ago”.

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However, in 2018 she admitted to The Telegraph that she had her “heart very badly broken by Ken”.

In the web chat, Emma continued: “All the fairy stories end when people get married and go off into the sunset, there are very few stories that deal with the nuts and bolts and actualities of serious relationships.

“I think that relationships are very hard work, that we can take our eyes off the ball very easily. I think that children can be a huge strain on relationships — it depends on what kind of relationship you have.”

Emma once told BBC Radio 4 that work and Greg “saved” her. She said Greg “picked up the pieces and put them together again”.

Despite this, she still doubts whether the fairytale “happy-ever-after ideal” exists in reality.

She said: “All I’m suggesting is that there are other models and I’m also suggesting that we’d been a little bit caught by the happy-ever-after ideal.”

Emma will play Nancy Stokes in the upcoming film ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ which was recently acquired by Lionsgate UK.

Variety reports Nancy, a 55-year-old widow, longs for adventure, human connection and good sex, which her stale marriage had robbed her of.

So she hires Leo Grande, a sex worker in his early 20s, for a night of excitement.

Emma has previously voiced her opinions on age gaps in relationships. She is seven years older than Greg.

Referencing the upcoming film when speaking to CultureBlast podcast last year, she said: “It’s very interesting with this woman I’m about to play.

“This young man says, ‘you’re perfectly attractive, why can’t you find another chap?’ And she says, ‘because the only people willing to sleep with me are people my age, and I want to sleep with someone younger than me’.

“Now, I’ve never heard a woman say that on screen, with men it’s completely acceptable.”