Emma Thompson’s daughter has publicly criticised her mother’s ex-husband Kenneth Branagh, 30 years after he had an affair with Helena Bonham-Carter.
Gaia Wise, 24, shared a meme with her 11,800 Instagram followers featuring photos of young Emma, 65, and the Haunting of Venice star, 63, from their 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing, with the caption: “She’s everything, he’s just Ken.”
It’s the tagline from Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie, which broke box office records last year. The quote is now used to describe incredible women, both real and fictional, paired with boring men.
The meme is a clear dig at the way Kenneth treated her mother after he had an affair with Helena Bonham-Carter, 58, while he was married to the Love Actually star from 1989 to 1995.
They met in 1987 while filming the BBC drama Fortunes of War. The Belfast director and Oscar-winning actress married after two years of dating.
Emma Thompson’s daughter has openly criticised her mother’s ex-husband Kenneth Branagh, 30 years after he had an affair with Helena Bonham-Carter (Emma and Gaia pictured)
Gaia Wise, 24, shared a meme with her 11,800 Instagram followers featuring photos of a young Emma, 65, and the Haunting of Venice star, 63, from their 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing, with the caption: ‘She’s everything, he’s just Ken’
It’s the tagline from Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie, which broke box office records last year. The quote is now used to describe incredible women, both real and fictional, paired with boring men (Margot and Ryan Gosling in the film).
The meme is a clear dig at Kenneth’s treatment of her mother after he had an affair with Helena Bonham-Carter, 58, while he was married to the Love Actually star from 1989 to 1995 (Emma and Kenneth pictured in 1994)
They worked together several times, but in 1993 Kenneth met Helena on the set of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and in 2022 Emma told The New Yorker: ‘I was completely unaware that he was having relationships with other women on the set.
“What I’ve learned is how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”
At the time, the couple blamed their busy work schedules for the split in a 1995 joint statement. However, it was later revealed that the Hamlet director had cheated on Helena, with whom he had been in a relationship until 1999.
Later, all three would appear as characters in the Harry Potter series, but they never appeared in any scenes together.
Emma played Sybilla Trelawney in The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Order of the Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Kenneth played Gilderoy Lockhart in The Chamber of Secrets and Helena played Bellatrix Lestrange in the last four films.
During the last year of her marriage to Kenneth, Emma worked on Sense and Sensibility, where she met her future husband Greg Wise, who at the time was having an affair with her co-star Kate Winslet.
The scars of Kenneth’s betrayal have stayed with Emma, who said in 2018: ‘That scene in Love Actually where my character is standing by the bed crying is so familiar because it’s something that everyone has experienced.
“Ken broke my heart so badly. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me.”
They met in 1987 while filming the BBC costume drama Fortunes of War and the Belfast director and Oscar-winning actress married after two years of dating (pictured at the wedding)
They worked together several times, but in 1993 Kenneth met Helena on the set of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with whom he had a relationship until 1999 (depicted in the film)
Eight years after her split from Kenneth, Emma married Greg Wise, 58, Gaia’s father, and the couple have been together for 20 years (pictured together last year)
Gaia made her acting debut in the BBC series Silent Witness and has opened up about her near-fatal three-year battle with anorexia, which began when she was 16 and was so severe it was painful to sit on a chair (pictured last month)
Eight years after her breakup with Kenneth, Emma married Greg, Gaia’s 58-year-old father. The couple have been together for 20 years.
Emma said: ‘Before Greg did Sense and Sensibility, he went to a friend who was a bit of a witch and she told him he was going to meet his future partner in the film.
“He assumed it wasn’t me because I was married and a lot older than him. So he thought it might be Kate.”
The Crown star took the 48-year-old Titanic actress on a date to the Glastonbury Music Festival, but they didn’t hit it off.
Greg said, “She [Kate] pointed out that we were compatible and told me that Emma’s marriage was over. It was all meant to be, just as my friend Helen had predicted.’
Gaia will star in the new anime film Lord Of The Rings and will voice Princess Hera, the daughter of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, who will be voiced by Brian Cox.
The 24-year-old made her acting debut in BBC series Silent Witness and has opened up about her near-fatal three-year battle with anorexia, which began when she was 16 and was so severe it was painful to sit in a chair.