- Dominic West was spotted kissing Lily James in 2020
- He has now branded the furore surrounding the photos as ‘absurd’
- The Crown star claims that he and wife Catherine FitzGerald ‘joke about it sometimes’
He hit headlines back in 2020, when very indiscreet photos of him and a co-star emerged.
And now Dominic West is finally speaking out about his faux pas – branding the drama surrounding it “absurd”.
The Crown star, 54, was pictured four years ago with fellow actor and his Pursuit of Love co-star Lily James, 35.
The pair were filming the adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel in Rome – and the snaps seemingly showed the two actors sharing a kiss when they were not on set.
While this alone would have been harmless, West had been married to Irish aristocrat Catherine FitzGerald, Viscountess Lambton, 52, since 2010. Addressing the scandal together, the couple merely shared a kiss outside their home in London, before placing a sign outside their property which read, “Our marriage is strong and we’re very much still together. Thank you. Catherine and Dominic.”
Since then, all parties have kept schtum about the incident – but this week, West candidly shared that he felt he could relate to King Charles, the character he plays in seasons five and six of the Netflix royal drama series, because of the same scrutiny his own personal life had gone under.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, West revealed, “I’d had a very acute understanding of what it’s like to feel the horror of your name or your photograph coming up in the newspapers. There is that dreadful freezing moment when something is being revealed about you.
“I think anyone can understand how that feels. But I’d been through it a couple of years previously and it must have informed how I approached it. That gut feeling of horror isn’t something you get inured to.”
West also admitted that he and FitzGerald – who share four children together – occasionally share a laugh about all the media furore surrounding his indiscretion.
“I hesitate to speak on my wife’s behalf because it was obviously horrible, particularly for her,” he said. “But we do joke about it sometimes. Because whenever we went out together, the papers would always say we were ‘putting on a show of unity’.
“Even if we’d just been rowing about parking the car or whatever, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth. And so when we go out we do sort of say, ‘Shall we go out and have a show of unity up in London?’
“It was an absurd situation. It was deeply stressful for my wife and my kids, but there were lighter moments. That was the best that came out of it, really.”
