David Morrissey’s famous family who ex-wife blamed for marriage woes and split
David Morrissey’s ex-wife once blamed his famous family for the breakdown of their marriage.
The 59-year-old Sherwood actor, who is set to star in the new ITV crime drama The Long Shadow as DCS George Oldfield, hit the headlines in 2020 when he announced then end of his marriage to wife Esther Freud. The couple tied the knot in 2006 in a ceremony on Southwold Pier, and welcomed three children – Albie, Anna and Gene. But they surprised fans when they revealed they would be parting ways, and Esther, 61, blamed their famous relatives for the demise of their romance.
Esther is the daughter of famous British painter Lucian Freud, and the great-granddaughter of groundbreaking psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who used and developed theories surrounding human behaviour. She said her father, who died in 2011, had a powerful influence on her life, and inherited his passion for work.
The couple wed in 2006, and share three children (Getty Images)
They announced their shock split in 2020 (Getty Images)“My father was a very powerful person, and I learned so much about relationships from him,” she told MailOnline. “What was most important to him was work. So in my relationships with men, I never felt I had the right to be more important than work.”
Esther, who was married to The Walking Dead star for 14 years, admitted: “That affected me and really ran my marriage. I could never say: 'I need you'.” She explained that their relationship was put on the back burner as David jetted off around the world to star in Hollywood movies and TV shows, and Esther was determined to encourage her husband to make a success out of his career.
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“If he had to go away for six months somewhere, who was I to say: 'Maybe another Robert De Niro film will come along...' The idea of him being disappointed or missing out, I couldn’t have borne it. So he worked and I did the bulk of the childcare,” she confessed.
Esther underwent therapy after experiencing what she described a bohemian childhood, and she documented her time growing up in the novel Hideous Kinky, which was later made into a movie starring Kate Winslet. She sadly revealed she was “prepared to pay any price” for having a family, even if that meant being away from her husband for months at a time.
“That kept me going for years but then it occurred to me I was very lonely and I thought it would be incredible to also have a companion and someone I could trust. I guess your priorities shift,” she candidly shared.
David is starring in The Long Shadow on ITV (ITV)Esther spent years travelling around with her sister and their mother, writer Bernardine Coverley, made a promise to herself that she “wouldn’t fall in with absent men”, but realised she had done exactly that when she persuaded David to pursue his career.
“It took me a long time to realise: I’ve just fallen into it but at a slightly different angle,” she added. David has since begun dating Domino Pateman, a director at a gender-equality charity, and the couple were spotted out and about in London last year.
David is starring in The Long Shadow, which follows the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, alongside a star-studded cast including Toby Jones, Katherine Kelly, David Mays, Jill Halfpenny and Stephen Tompkinson.
The Long Shadow is on ITV1 on Monday at 9pm
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