Meet the impressive spouses of Hollywood's top leading men

Meet the impressive spouses of Hollywood's top leading men

They are Hollywood's hottest men of the moment who have left women all over the world weak at the knees.

English actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne have been taking this year's awards season by storm with their Best Actor Oscar nominations, while Irish hunk Jamie Dornan has become a walking female fantasy. Dornan plays Christian Grey in erotic film Fifty Shades Of Grey, which is showing in cinemas here.

Unfortunately for their legions of fans, the trio of big-screen It guys are also very much taken and off the market.

Just who are the lucky ladies who have captured their hearts in real life and are rubbing it in our faces by parading with their better halves on red carpets everywhere?

Sophie Hunter

Wife of Benedict Cumberbatch

SHE IS...

A 36-year-old British actress and avant-garde theatre and opera director.

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SHE'S DONE...

One word: overachiever.

The Oxford graduate who studied Modern Languages attended the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris and is fluent in French.

(Cumberbatch is not too far behind where intellect is concerned. The alumnus of Harrow School studied drama at university, then trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has a master's in Classical Acting.)

Hunter's breakout film role was as Maria Osborne in the 2004 period drama Vanity Fair.

She also directs theatre productions and operas and was honoured in 2007 with the Samuel Beckett award for writing and directing her own play, The Terrific Electric.

She also sings and has released two EPs with English singer-songwriter Guy Chambers. The French-language record Isis Project was released in 2005 and the English-language Songs For A Boy came out in 2011.

The posh couple also have links to royalty.

Cumberbatch, 38, is the great-grandson of Queen Victoria's consul-general in Turkey and Lebanon and Hunter's maternal grandfather was General Sir James Michael Gow GCB, who worked with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in the 1950s and was an Aide-de-Camp General to Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980s.

Hunter is the reason for the collective heartache among fangirls last November when it was announced she was engaged to the Sherlock star and leading man of the Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game.

The news broke via a traditional announcement in UK's The Times, just five months after it was confirmed they were dating.

Another reason to hate her?

Last month, it was announced that she is pregnant with their first child.

HOW THEY MET

On the set of the 2009 indie thriller Burlesque Fairytales, where they shared scenes but did not play a couple.

HOW THEY TIED THE KNOT

They could not have picked a better date to celebrate their union, exchanging vows on Valentine's Day last Saturday at a private ceremony at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church at Mottistone, Isle of Wight.

If you are wondering about the significance of the location, it is believed that Hunter is related to the Nicholsons, who once owned the wedding reception venue Mottistone Manor and are now tenants of the estate. Hunter's great-great-grandfather, Mr John Seely, was apparently the first Baron Mottistone and whose family purchased the property in the 1860s.

WHAT HE HAS SAID ABOUT HER

Unfortunately, Cumberbatch is as tight-lipped about his personal life as he is about his leading lady.

But he likes it that she is not bothered by the female attention he gets.

"She's just really cool. She's proud of my work, she's proud of me, and she loves me. That's the bottom line, isn't it? That's one of the reasons it's a good fit. It could be a really difficult thing, but she's just so in command of it," he told People magazine.

Amelia Warner

Wife of Jamie Dornan

SHE IS...

A 32-year-old English actress-musician

SHE DOES...

The singer, who performs under the moniker Slow Moving Millie, released her debut album Renditions in 2011.

It features the 1984 The Smiths hit Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, which was used for UK department store chain John Lewis' Christmas advertisement.

As an actress, she had a role in 2000 period film Quills opposite Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Caine, but she is most known in the UK for her lead role as Lorna Doone in TV movie of the same name released that year.

In 2005, she starred as the sister of Charlize Theron's titular character in sci-fi film Aeon Flux.

More interestingly, she was briefly "married" to Irish actor Colin Farrell when she was just 19, after the pair dated for four months. Their Tahitian beach ceremony "was by no means legal".

They were engaged to be married, but split just four months after their "wedding".

Warner described the whirlwind relationship with Farrell, who had her name tattooed on his ring finger, as "intense and passionate", adding that it was "heartbreaking" when it ended.

HOW THEY MET

Two years after splitting from actress Keira Knightley in 2005, Dornan, 32, met Warner at a party in Hollywood through mutual friends.

They moved into their Notting Hill, London, home after dating for some time.

HOW THEY TIED THE KNOT

They were married in April 2013 in a ceremony at a country house in Somerset, England. In November that year, they had their daughter Dulcie.

Although they live in London, supportive wife Warner agreed to give birth in Vancouver, where Fifty Shades Of Grey was being filmed.

WHAT HE HAS SAID ABOUT HER

Dornan's favourite feature of Warner's?

Forget traditional answers like bum or breasts. He's all about the hands.

He revealed in the US edition of Glamour magazine: "I've got a thing for great hands. My wife has my favourite hands in the world."

While women have been tripping over their feet to catch him in Fifty Shades Of Grey, Warner will gladly pass.

"She doesn't want to watch this... She's well aware that it's pretend, but it's probably not that comfortable to watch," Dornan told USA Today.

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Hannah Bagshawe

Wife of Eddie Redmayne

SHE IS...

A 32-year-old financial publicist

SHE DOES...

She worked at several investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale, before joining media company MergerMarket, where she worked for five years.

She holds a Master's degree in English Literature and French from the University of Edinburgh.

She reportedly picks out her own red carpet outfits and also has her say when it comes to her husband's awards ceremony togs - but only because he is colour blind.

HOW THEY MET

They first met in 2000 when the 33-year-old English actor was studying at Eton College in the UK.

Together with some other schoolmates, he was invited by a nearby girls' school, where Bagshawe was then studying for a charity fashion show.

Redmayne and Bagshawe became friends at an afterparty, where he thought she was "beautiful and very funny".

They remained friends for 12 years but only went on their first date in Florence, Italy, in 2012. He was taking a short break from shooting Les Miserables and had invited her along.

HOW THEY TIED THE KNOT

They got hitched at Babington House in Somerset, England, last December.

The top-secret winter wonderland-themed wedding came after they announced their engagement in June last year.

It went on smoothly save for a minor hiccup.

The bride, whom Redmayne told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on her show "has never been on time for anything in her life", arrived 30 minutes later than she was supposed to.

They took off for their honeymoon in the Alps shortly after, but cut it short to attend the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, where he took home Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for his role in The Theory of Everything.

WHAT HE HAS SAID ABOUT HER

Famous or otherwise, Redmayne is not spared mundane husband duties.

He told E! News: "There was a moment yesterday where I was in rehearsal and my wife was calling me because our dishwasher broke down. So in the process of trying to focus on my craft, I was dealing with the blocked pipes."

ashikinr@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on Feb 17, 2015.
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