They seemed to have the perfect luvvie marriage — one that’s lasted 20 years and produced two sons.
He, the righteous Remainer and Oscar-winning actor. She, his Italian wife, a successful film producer, eco-warrior, Oxfam ambassador and member of the #MeToo set.
Which is why Colin Firth’s and Livia Giuggioli’s admission that she had a year-long affair with Italian journalist Marco Brancaccia — a childhood friend she now accuses of stalking her — has shocked us all to the core.
Livia Firth and Colin Firth attend the screening of 'Loving' at the annual 69th Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2016 in Cannes, France
The Firths seemed to have the perfect luvvie marriage - one that’s lasted 20 years and produced two sons
For it explodes the fiction that we have taken for granted about these two champions of sanctimony who have so readily embraced good causes.
Last year, in a huff about Brexit which he described as a ‘disaster of unexpected proportions’, Firth chose to become an Italian.
The actor — described by fellow thespian Rupert Everett as a ‘ghastly, guitar-playing, redbrick socialist’ and a ‘grim Guardian reader in sandals’ — explained it was ‘for family reasons’ and that he wanted the same passport as his wife and children.
Now we learn that a few years ago that same wife had left him and embarked on an affair, although they are now back together.
Colin Firth's wife has admitted she had a fling with Marco Brancaccia, the childhood friend she now accuses of stalking her
This week, Livia was in full right-on mode, brandishing her moral credentials on International Woman’s Day, tweeting: ‘To all the women out there #sisters #globalfeminists #gamechanger #activecitizens happy.’
The trouble with such smugness, is it sets the couple up for a fall when their apparently perfect life actually turns out to be anything but.
Of course it would be hideous to be stalked. After the man who stalked Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis for 20 years was jailed, she bravely told how it affected her work, her marriage, her children, decisions about when to leave her house or meet strangers — everything in her life.
If Livia’s claims are true, that her life has been made hell by her spurned lover just because she and her husband chose to live as a family again, Brancaccia should be punished.
But if, as Brancaccia says, her accusations were made simply to cover up the problems in her marriage — that would be a different matter entirely.
One thing is certain: that in this febrile #MeToo world, relations between the sexes are becoming more complicated by the day.
Bella Hadid attends the Victoria's Secret fashion show viewing party at Spring Studios on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, in New York
Bella Hadid and David Beckham, in the crowd watching the Champions League game of Paris Saint-Germain against Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes in Paris, France
Victoria Beckham was snapped alone in her fashion shop looking pensive after pictures appeared of hubby David ogling and flirting with supermodel Bella Hadid as they watched a game between Paris Saint-Germain and his old team Real Madrid.
Was Posh musing on marriage to the man once renowned the world over for making the best pass?
Appearing in Hello! flogging Mon Guerlain perfume, Angelina Jolie says it was her late mother Marcheline who persuaded her to become the multi-million pound face of the fragrance, as she used the brand’s face powder.
Yet Ange insists she’s not interested in such superficial things as branding and her focus is all on peace, security and women’s rights.
Starting with a woman’s right to fork out £96 for a bottle of her perfume.
Westminster noticeboard
Speaker Bercow is accused of bullying his former clerk
+ Speaker Bercow denies claims by his former clerk Kate Emms that he bullied her during her brief tenure in his office.
If Emms needs witnesses for a case against the pretentious little pipsqueak, doubtless she’ll be able to ask any number of the MPs he regularly abuses in the Commons.
+ Labour's former LGBT adviser Munroe Bergdorf says she was driven out by attacks on her character by ‘the Right-wing Press’.
Yes, the Press that had the temerity to reprint her horrible Tweets such as this one to a supposed friend: ‘How’s your barren womb?
We all know your little secret . . . hairy lesbian!’; and another in which she describes a woman as ‘a saggy ol dyke’.
It’s not the Press that destroyed Ms Bergdorf’s reputation — she’s capable of doing that herself.
+ Having orchestrated the near collapse of the Lib Dems and burdened Britain with failed policies, Nick Clegg received his knighthood this week.
Yet he refused to allow cameras to capture the moment.
It must be the first time we’ve seen a scintilla of humility from this preening politician.
The dating app Bumble has banned its 30 million worldwide users from toting guns in their profile pictures in a gesture of ‘kindness and respect’ after the Florida school shootings.
Now could they please also ban pictures of all men with a BMI over 30 from wearing Lycra — as an act of kindness to its female users.
Talk about a dog's dinner
Cruel: The magnificent St Bernard arriving in a head-to-toe onesie, decorated with colourful elephants
Crufts is on again and has been met with the usual howls of disapproval from the animal rights fanatics who say it’s cruel and full of inbred creatures like French bulldogs, which are the latest must-have fashion accessory.
Not that they seemed worried about the magnificent St Bernard arriving in a head-to-toe onesie, decorated with colourful elephants.
Now that was cruel — as well as a crime against fashion.
Daytime TV’s favourite married couple Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes’ new series, Do The Right Thing, is billed as supporting good causes.
Episode one had Ruth in the buff at a gym extolling naked exercise. It made for uncomfortable viewing, not least because Ruth’s curves could themselves have done with a little support.
Thank goodness Eamonn wasn’t presenting
Soldier Owen Pick was blown up in Helmand in 2011, losing a leg aged 18.
Seven years on and he is an international snowboarder carrying the flag for Team GB at the Winter Paralympics yesterday.
Meanwhile ex-Para Scott Meenagh lost both legs in Afghanistan — and is competing as a skier.
Whatever happens in the actual events, both these heroes deserve medals for pure grit.
Hero Sir Roger...
Roger Bannistr (left) and Bradley Wiggins (right) - whose reputation will last the longest?
Whatever the rights and wrongs of Bradley Wiggins taking a legal performance-enhancing drug, there should be one certain outcome from the storm that’s besmirched the world of cycling: that we stop handing out gongs to sporting superstars with such indecent haste.
Wiggins was knighted less than a year after being the first Brit to win the Tour de France in 2012.
In contrast, Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes and a truly unblemished sporting hero, had to wait 21 years for his knighthood.
I wonder whose reputation will last longest?
Many were impressed at the dignified way Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux ended their marriage.
Alas we now learn there was a dogfight — over their pet pooches Dolly, Clyde and Sophie.
They’ve both consulted lawyers to try to agree custody and visitation rights. A marriage may not be for life. But a dog certainly is.
Angelina insists she’s not interested in such superficial things as branding
Appearing in Hello! flogging Mon Guerlain perfume, Angelina Jolie says it was her late mother Marcheline who persuaded her to become the multi-million pound face of the fragrance, as she used the brand’s face powder.
Yet Ange insists she’s not interested in such superficial things as branding and her focus is all on peace, security and women’s rights.
Starting with a woman’s right to fork out £96 for a bottle of her perfume.
We'll all pray for brave Bill
Two months before his diagnosis with prostate cancer, Bill Turnbull took part in a Celebrity Bake Off special in aid of Stand Up To Cancer.
Asked to create a biscuit version of the best day of his life, he made a ‘tableau of love’ for his family.
It included him and his wife Sarah on their wedding day and biscuit figurines of his three children.
It’s not just his family and friends who are praying for a long life for this wonderful man, but Bill’s millions of fans, myself included.
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