Greg Wise reveals secret to happy marriage with Emma Thompson

4 April 2024, 13:44

They've been married for over 20 years.

The Crown's Greg Wise first met the love of his life, actress Emma Thompson, on the set of the 1995 period drama Sense and Sensibility.

Like most marriages that last, the power couple have had their own series of trials and tribulations over the years.

But Greg has recently revealed the simple secret to a happy marriage, though the message is certainly clearer than the reality.

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Talking to HELLO! magazine, Wise revealed: "To keep bloody working at it," was the key to keeping yourself and your partner happy.

"If it's a friendship that also has a love and children attached, you've got to work that much harder.

"Possibly the secret is not spending the entire time together," the star added, which is a fortunate outcome of their respective jobs.

"As actors, there is a lot of separation in our life because we get ripped away to spend months filming or touring.

"So we are probably quite good at plumbing ourselves back in after long times of being apart," he added.

The pair are currently spending time away from each other while Emma is shooting a film in Finland with their 24-year-old daughter, Gaia.

"Em's out making a thriller [The Fisherwoman] and Gaia is playing her in flashbacks, which is wonderful," gushes Greg.

"They're having to plunge themselves into ice-cold water and roll around in the snow every day. I'll go out and visit when I can."

He and Emma are also parents to 36-year-old Tindy, a former Rwandan child soldier who they formally adopted in 2003.

Gushing over the two lady loves in his life, Greg also opened up to HELLO! about the tragic loss of his sister, Clare.

She sadly succumbed to her battle with bone cancer in 2016, and Greg spent the last three months of her life beside her bed, with the help of Marie Curie.

"Marie Curie, without a doubt, saved my life," he says. "It is a balance of trauma and privilege, being able to care for someone in that way.

"The only way it was possible for me to do that was having the Marie Curie team there, not only supporting my sister with palliative drugs and treatments, but also providing me with emotional support."

It was the support of his wife that helped him throughout the incredibly dark period, as Greg struggled with grief.

"Em was a fabulous person to have in the sense that, very shortly after Clare died and I was released from her flat, which I hadn't really left for three months, she was able to allow me to go off on my own up to our cottage on the west coast of Scotland, and be outside in nature and howl and do whatever I needed to do on my own."

"It was absolutely essential," he says, adding: "She also sent up the largest bottle of whisky I've ever seen!"

Greg has been a long-time supporter of the Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal, which runs each March to generate awareness and funds for the charity.

To donate and support Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal this March, visit Mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil