Meet the Irish woman who stole the heart of hot Brit actor Theo James Theo James and his Dublin-born wife Ruth Kearney Theo James in the saucy advert Theo in the saucy advert Alicia Vikander with Michael Fassbender Writer and director Martin McDonagh with Phoebe Waller-Bridge Barry Keoghan with Sabrina Carpenter Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid There is something about the Irish. Women around the globe were swooning when White Lotus star Theo James was pictured in a romantic photoshoot with model Victoria Ceretti along the Italian Riviera for a new Dolce and Gabbana advert last week. But it emerged that James is happily married to Dublin actress Ruth Kearney, after first meeting in acting school in Bristol in their student days.
Theo in the saucy advert James is among a list of global stars who have fallen for Irish partners, from Dominic West to Courteney Cox and Sabrina Carpenter. Oscar-winning actresses Charlize Theron and Alicia Vikander were also seduced by Celtic charm while Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has had two long-term relationships with Irish men. Vikander married Michael Fassbender after meeting as star-crossed lovers on the set of the film The Light Between Oceans while Theron dated Dubliner Stuart Townsend in the 2000s.
The English creator of Fleabag was pictured in London in recent weeks with her partner, Irish-English playwright, Martin McDonagh, and her co-star, Andrew Scott, during Taylor Swift’s stint in London. They were reported to have had dinner with singer and fashion designer, Stella McCartney, at a restaurant in Notting Hill. Waller-Bridge was previously married to Galway-born filmmaker Conor Woodman, but they split in 2017 after a brief marriage.
Writer and director Martin McDonagh with Phoebe Waller-Bridge The Killing Eve writer and Banshees of Inisherin writer McDonagh are considered one of the film world’s most prolific power couples with multiple awards to their names. Espresso singer Sabrina Carpenter was first seen in public with Saltburn star Barry Keoghan at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party, while they made their very glamorous red-carpet debut at the 2024 Met Gala. The Dubliner walked the carpet in a sleek Burberry suit while his girlfriend posed with a floral-inspired frock by Oscar de la Renta before stopping to be photographed together at the top of the steps.
It was a case of art imitating life when their relationship went viral with Keoghan’s starring role in her video for Sabrina’s hit single, Please, Please Please. In the music video, the beautiful singer is seen getting together with her real-life Dublin boyfriend as she sings, “I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy/Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight,” before begging, “Please, please, please/Don’t prove I’m right.” Alicia Vikander with Michael Fassbender The high-production music video takes on a Bonnie and Clyde theme with prison visits, stolen money, and brawls all part of the storyline.
US singer Phoebe Bridgers also got her real-life Irish boyfriend, Paul Mescal, to star in the music video for her hit, Savior Complex, in December 2020. The video, which opens with bruised and battered Mescal sitting on a beach, was filmed in black and white but only features a brief interaction between the pair. There was an outpouring of online sympathy for the wife of Theo James when the 39-year-old actor became the centre of global attention last week when he filmed romantic scenes with Leonardo di Caprio’s supermodel girlfriend on the island of Capri.
But the Dublin actress and her British husband looked like the ultimate power couple when they made a glamorous entrance in tailored black outfits and matching sunglasses at a Dolce and Gabbana fashion show in Sardinia a few days earlier. The pair are understood to have met when studying acting at the Bristol Young Vic, whose famous alumni include Daniel Day-Lewis and Olivia Colman. He recently spoke of adopting Irish expressions from his partner.
“My wife is Irish and we love Ireland”, he told GeekIreland adding: “There is a lot of Irish that goes around the family. I’ve taken on saying ‘That’s gas’ which as a British person with a British accent sounds terrible.” James, who has been tipped as the next James Bond, has appeared in everything from the Divergent film series with Shailene Woodley to Underworld movies with Kate Beckinsale, and even played the role of Lady Mary’s lover, Mr Pamuk, who memorably died in bed in the first ever episode of Downton Abbey.
In Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, he won critical acclaim for his role as a British duke thrown into an aristocratic weed-growing empire, while he played rich tech executive Cameron Babcock, who is on holiday in a hotel in Sicily with his wife Daphne, in the global hit, White Lotus. Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid Meanwhile, Friends superstar, Courteney Cox, fell for long-time Derry love, Johnny McDaid over a decade ago. The actress and the Snow Patrol singer were recently pictured out in London with close friends, Claudia Winkleman and her husband, while she posted a picture of the pair on a skiing holiday earlier this year.
She explained on the Howard Stern Show how she first met her boyfriend when Ed Sheeran brought him and Taylor Swift to a party she was hosting in her LA home. “I had a fun group, anyway, like Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher, and Jennifer was there. It was really fun.
I remember seeing Johnny and going, ‘Oh, wow. He’s really intense.’ He’s got those eyes, and he was playing the piano,” Cox said.
“And I thought ‘Oh he’s really, really handsome’. But I didn’t do anything about it then. She revealed how Cohen ended up telling McDaid that the Friends star had fallen for him.
Barry Keoghan with Sabrina Carpenter She added: “This is really weird, Harry Styles was in the conversation, and Harry is like, ‘if you don’t ask her out...
’ I think he threatened to do something crazy. Anyway, he called me, I think the next day, or wrote me, and then we went on a date a week later. “I love his family, I love him, I love what he does,” she told the radio host.
Courteney has made regular visits to Northern Ireland with her fiancé over the years taking in some of his favourite haunts in Derry and Donegal. Meanwhile, The Crown star Dominic West splits his time between London and Glin Castle in Limerick as it is the home of his Irish wife, Catherine Fitzgerald. The pair met in Trinity College before splitting up as a young couple but renewed their romance and married in 2010 at her family’s aristocratic home.
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