Love Actually filmmaker Richard Curtis secretly marries Emma Freud after 33 years

The pair, who share four children, wed after three decades together and two failed proposals
Richard Curtis weds longtime partner Emma Freud
Getty Images
Dominique Hines17 October 2023
The Weekender

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Richard Curtis has married partner Emma Freud after 33 years together.

The Love Actually director, 66, secretly wed the 61-year-old broadcaster last month after he turned down her proposals down twice in the past.

Freud accidentally shared the news about the nuptials while interviewing actor Richard E. Grant  at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival in Gloucestershire.

An onlooker said: “Emma confessed she had finally got hitched while interviewing Richard E. Grant. She said they’d been married for four weeks.”

According to The Sun, it was obvious Freud wasn’t meant to have said anything as she put her finger to her lips, made a “funny noise” which had everyone in hysterics and tried to change the subject.

Third time was a charm for Freud whose marriage proposals have been turned down twice by Curtis
Reuters

“It’s not surprising Emma wanted to talk about it, though,” added the onlooker. “They’ve been together for over 30 years so it was about time they got married.”

Curtis, who is the creator of hit rom-coms including Notting Hill and Four Weddings And A Funeral,  was also at the event and seen wearing a gold band on his wedding ring finger.

Freud, who shares children Scarlett, Jake, Spike and Charlie with Curtis, previously proposed to the acclaimed director twice.

He refused the first time and slept through the second, after she popped the question during a radio show that he snoozed through.

Curtis was interviewed by his and Freud’s daughter Scarlett at the festival
Scarlett Curtis

He said jokes about women’s weight “aren’t any longer funny” and that he regretted not including a single black character in his 1999 hit film Notting Hill, despite it being set in the historically black area.

He explained: “Because I came from a very undiverse school and bunch of university friends, I think that I’ve hung on, on the diversity issue, to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts. I think I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that.”

He referred to Renée Zellweger’s character in his film Bridget Jones’s Diary, who is described as having a “bottom the size of Brazil” and the film focuses on her weight and looks.

“I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me, ‘You can never use the word ‘fat’ again," Curtis told the audience.

"Wow, you were right. In my generation calling someone chubby [was funny]. In Love Actually there were jokes about that.

“Those jokes aren’t any longer funny.”

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