Acclaimed actress Lesley Manville has playfully targeted her former spouse, Hollywood star Gary Oldman, during a recent television interview, despite their divorce being over three decades ago. The The Crown star made the remark while appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote her Broadway role in the Greek tragedy Oedipus.
A Light-Hearted Jab on Live TV
During the conversation, host Stephen Colbert showed the 69-year-old actress a photograph of her teenage self from her time on Emmerdale in 1975. When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Manville quipped, “Don’t marry an actor!” The comment drew immediate laughter from both Colbert and the studio audience.
The clip quickly spread on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with many viewers interpreting it as a subtle dig at Oldman. Manville has been married to two actors: first to Gary Oldman, and later to Joe Dixon.
The History Behind the Headline
Lesley Manville and Gary Oldman, now 67, began their relationship in 1984. The couple married three years later in 1987 and welcomed a son, Alfie, in 1988. However, their marriage was short-lived. Merely three months after Alfie's birth, Oldman left to pursue a relationship with then-18-year-old actress Uma Thurman.
Manville has previously spoken about the profound hurt she experienced. On BBC's Desert Island Discs, she revealed, “We were having the most amazing time together... but then the rug was very severely pulled from under my feet.” She described it as a “tremendously lonely time,” initially hiding the separation from her family by using Oldman's film work in the United States as a cover.
Life After the Split
Gary Oldman married Uma Thurman in 1990, but the union lasted only two years, ending in 1992. Thurman later reflected that it took a “special kind of woman to put up with him.”
Lesley Manville moved on to marry actor Joe Dixon in 2000, though that marriage also ended in divorce in 2004. Despite the past heartache, Manville and Oldman have reportedly maintained a civil relationship over the years, co-parenting their son.
Her recent, humorous advice on national television shows that even after 30 years, some memories—and the wit to reference them—remain perfectly intact.
