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23 Jan 2026 3:53
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  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Hugh Bonneville "feels blessed" to have "started a new chapter" by finding love again after his divorce

    The Downton Abbey star, 62, split from his wife Lucinda Williams - the mother of his 22-year-old son Felix - in 2023 after 25 years of marriage and he recently went public with his new partner, Heidi Kadlecova, 54, who made her red carpet debut with the actor by accompanying him to the premiere of his latest film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale in September.


    He has now admitted he feels lucky to have been able to move on. When asked if he has found "late-flowering love", he told Saga magazine: "I have.

    "I want to be sensitive about what I say, because there is still a lot of rawness. But I do feel very blessed and very content to have started a new chapter."

    Bonneville has endured a tough few years after losing his mother Patricia in 2014, his brother Nigel, who died in his sleep two years later, and his father John, who died in 2020.

    The actor admits the grief of losing three family members in eight years has been difficult but it's made him appreciate his own life in a new way.

    He told the publication: "'I am more accepting of the wheel of life and how fortunate I have been to have, on the whole, good health and to do something I love ... In terms of my outlook on life, having lost three significant members of my family, it's made me more fatalistic."

    Bonneville previously explained he was forced him to confront his own mortality following the death of his sibling Nigel Bonneville in 2017 so he decided to embrace life by buying the car he'd always dreamed of owning.

    He told The Independent newspaper: "My brother died suddenly in his sleep and so the next day, I went and bought the soft top convertible I'd always wanted.

    "I planted the copper beech tree I'd been meaning to plant for 20 years. Because it made me realise just how utterly ... what's the word, roulette?

    "How much of a roulette life is."

    Bonneville sold the car a year later, but he continued with his campaign to make every moment "count".

    He added: "That instinct had kicked in ... Try and make it count, try and make it matter, try and do it now ... I've got friends who've died and you think, we're only here once.

    "We're not learning from the past about how we treat each other. Those tragedies rhyme throughout history. What can we do to make our final chapters positive in some way? ...

    "Just to try to make things a little kinder, a little calmer, a little more generous - so that the next generation isn't full of despair."

    © 2026 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

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     Today's News

    Politics:
    Prime Minister Chris Luxon says the weather events of the past 48 hours have been a profound tragedy 21:57

    Entertainment:
    Valentino has died at the age of 93 21:40

    Accident and Emergency:
    Two bodies have been found at a house on Papamoa's Welcome Bay Road - after a large landslide caused extensive damage early this morning 21:17

    Entertainment:
    Lily Allen is "happy to be alive" after a lorry ran her new Porsche "off the road" 21:10

    Auckland:
    What we know about the landslide at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand 21:07

    Environment:
    Young girl among missing campers at New Zealand's Mount Maunganui after landslide — as it happened 20:47

    Entertainment:
    Valerie Bertinelli claims she was "fired" as a spokesperson for a diet company because she gained weight 20:40

    Entertainment:
    Stellan Skarsgard has branded Donald Trump a "little man who got megalomania" 20:10

    Entertainment:
    Chris Pratt has admitted he won't keep the giant painting of his father-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger on the wall all year round 19:40

    Entertainment:
    Drew Starkey has been appointed brand ambassador for Dior 19:10


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