Strictly Come Dancing star Amanda Abbington and actor Martin Freeman were together for over 15 years until they split – for a heartbreaking reason.
The actress, 51, and actor, 52, first struck up a relationship back in 200 while working on the flick Men Only. The pair went on to star alongside each other for a slew of TV shows and movies, including The Good Night, The Debt and most notably, Sherlock.
Amanda and Martin never married but lived together and had two children, son Joe and daughter Grace. However, in 2016, the pair called it quits after 16 years together.
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The TV star opened up about the end of their relationship and shared the sad reason behind it all. She told The Sunday Times Magazine: “When we broke up nobody knew, we didn’t tell anybody except for a few key people because they had to know, because of the logistics of hotels and stuff.
(Image: Getty Images)
“It took six months for it to get out and a lot of that was while we were working on Sherlock… We were professional and we were going to get on and make a show and be civil to each other.”
Amanda went on: “We still get on really well, we still really both admire each other as actors… he’s a great guy. But we just couldn’t live with each other anymore.”
Amanda had also spoken out about how her mental health struggled during the break-up. While on the Full Disclosure podcast she recalled the toll it had taken on her.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
“It was breaking up with Martin and then realising I needed to sort myself out because I was a bit of a mess. I hated myself,” she candidly admitted.
Amanda then recalled how she felt like she had let people down following the split. And sadly, her mantra soon became “You could always kill yourself”.
She went on: “That was a genuine option for me, quite a few times in my life. Then I don’t have to be this bad person because I don’t have to be here anymore.”
Amanda started therapy since and has been able to stop feeling this way. She has also moved on from Martin and is engaged to former daredevil Jonathan Goodwin.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
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The pair were online friends over social media for over a decade, and after her split from Martin they would call and text one another. In a story of love at first sight, they soon met in Vienna and within half an hour of clapping eyes on each other they were engaged.
Reflecting on the engagement, Jonathan told The Guardian in 2022: “By this time, I knew that I was going to ask her to marry me. I had been planning it already, even though we’d only been talking for a month.
“I cut the shape of the ring box out of the middle of a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets, so it fitted inside. Underneath the box it said: ‘Will you marry me?'”
At the time, Amanda spoke about the engagement on her Instagram as she said: “When you know, you know. I knew straight away. Within hours. My person is one of the kindest, sweetest, most amazing, incredible, talented, funny, brave, unstoppable, fearless and beautiful humans on the planet.”
For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
