It’s been almost four years since Dominic West and his wife, Catherine FitzGerald, were rocked by rumours of an affair after a headline-making rendezvous in Rome between West and his The Tale of Thomas Burberry co-star, Lily James.
Now, in an interview with The Times, the actor has opened up about how “deeply stressful” the time was for his family.
“I hesitate to speak on my wife’s behalf because it was obviously horrible, particularly for her. But we do joke about it sometimes,” he told the outlet. “It was deeply stressful for my wife and my kids, but there were lighter moments. That was the best that came out of it, really.”
“Whenever we went out together, the papers would always say we were ‘putting on a show of unity’,” he explained, adding that it became a laughable reference for him and his wife. “Even if we’d just been rowing about parking the car or whatever, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth.. so when we go out, we do sort of say, ‘Shall we go and have a show of unity up in London?'”
The Crown actor has been married to FitzGerald since 2010, and the two share four children: Dora, Senan, Francis, and Christabel.
In October 2020, the low-key couple was thrown into the news cycle when West, then 50, was photographed riding an electric scooter with James, then 31. In some photos (see here), the two were even captured kissing—West notably without his wedding ring.
Days later, West and FitzGerald put on a loved-up display outside their Cotswolds home for paparazzi, where they also responded to speculation about a separation to the public via handwritten note.
“Our marriage is strong, and we’re very much still together. Thank you,” read the note, which the two signed.
James, who subsequently pulled out of multiple promotional appearances for her film, Rebecca, has yet to comment about the scandal directly but did hint at the fallout during an interview with Rolling Stone.
“Women in the public eye at some point experience some sort of difficult situation in their relationship between privacy and your life being in the tabloids,” she said. “It was a lot. It’s a story as old as time.”
