News about Kate Winslet's separation

LONDON (Reuters) - Actress Kate Winslet, who starred in the Hollywood blockbuster "Titanic," is separating from her film director husband Jim Threapleton less than a year after the birth of their daughter.

Sky Television quoted Winslet's spokesman on Monday as saying there were no other parties involved in the amicable split. The spokesman was not available for further comment.

Twice Oscar-nominated star Winslet, 25, married Threapleton in 1998 when he worked on her film "Hideous Kinky.

From the Evening Standard:

"Winslet and Husband Split"

Titanic star Kate Winslet and husband Jim Threapleton are separating, the actress's spokesman says.

Winslet's spokesman Robert Garlock said: "Kate Winslet and Jim Threapleton announced today that they have decided to separate. No other parties are involved in this amicable and respectful separation. Their daughter Mia will remain first priority for both of them."

The spokesman refused to disclose the reasons for the split. However, it is understood to have happened after weeks of arguments between the couple.

Winslet married Threapleton after meeting him as third assistant director on the set of Hideous Kinky where she "fell in love at first sight" with a "glorious-looking boy".

The pair married on the November 22, 1998. Their daughter, Mia, was born in October last year.

The Heavenly Creatures star only recently told September's edition of In Style magazine how her career came second to her home life. "An actor's happiness has to come from something other than work," she told the magazine. "I know we're very lucky." Having a baby has "strengthened the relationship although there are highs and lows and at times it's tough."

Winslet, who won plaudits for losing so much weight after the birth of her daughter, is due to meet the Prince of Wales later this month at the premiere of her new wartime film Enigma, produced by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger.

From Ananova Entertainment News:

"Winslet and Husband Undergo Amicable Separation"

Kate Winslet's separation from her husband Jim Threapleton has been amicable, according to a statement from the couple.

No reason for the couple's split has been given and a spokesman said the split had been amicable and respectful.

The 25-year-old actress met Threapleton on the set of "Hideous Kinky." She once remarked that she "fell in love at first sight" with the third assistant director of the film, whom she described as a "glorious-looking boy".

Winslet's spokesman, Robert Garlock, said: "No other parties are involved in this amicable and respectful separation. Their daughter Mia will remain first priority for both of them."

The pair married on November 22, 1998. Their daughter, Mia, was born in October last year.

Winslet said in the September edition of In Style magazine that having a baby had "strengthened the relationship, although there are highs and lows and at times it's tough".

Winslet is due to appear in Mick Jagger's directorial debut "Enigma." She plays heroine Hester Wallace in a tale of romantic intrigue among British code-breakers trying to unravel German U-boat ciphers during World War II.

The movie, which also stars Dougray Scott, Jeremy Northam and Saffron Burrows, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Story filed: 22:20 Monday 3rd September 2001

From BBC News:

"Kate Winslet To Split From Husband"

Actress Kate Winslet and her husband Jim Threapleton are separating, it has been announced.

The couple, who celebrated the birth of their first child, Mia, last year, married in 1998. Winslet met Threapleton on the set of Hideous Kinky.
Winslet's spokesman Robert Garlock said: "Kate Winslet and Jim Threapleton announced today that they have decided to separate. No other parties are involved in this amicable and respectful separation. Their daughter Mia will remain first priority for both of them."

House

The actress, whose new film Enigma is to be released soon, met assistant director Threapleton during the filming of Hideous Kinky in Morocco in 1997.

Last summer the couple bought a £200,000 home in Cornwall and an old pump house overlooking the Thames in London.

The couple's first baby was born last year.
They also jointly run a production company, Telltale Films, which aims to develop and produce UK and European-based films.

Their spilt comes a few weeks after the divorce of another high-profile couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Since their wedding, Winslet has spoken often of putting their marriage first. The star only recently told In Style magazine how her career came second to her home life. "An actor's happiness has to come from something other than work," she told the magazine. "I know we're very lucky."

She said having a baby had "strengthened the relationship although there are highs and lows and at times it's tough".

From ITN:

"Kate Winslet and Husband to Split"

Movie star Kate Winslet and husband Jim Threapleton are separating, the actress's spokesman has said.

Winslet's spokesman Robert Garlock added: "Kate Winslet and Jim Threapleton announced today that they have decided to separate. "No other parties are involved in this amicable and respectful separation. Their daughter Mia will remain first priority for both of them."

The spokesman refused to reveal the reasons for the split. It is understood to have happened after weeks of arguments between the couple.

The Titanic star married Threapleton after meeting him as third assistant director on the set of Hideous Kinky where she "fell in love at first sight" with a "glorious-looking boy".

The pair married on the November 22, 1998 and their daughter, Mia, was born in October last year.

She described Jim: "He's like a girlfriend. He says, ‘yes that works, turn up the cuffs, and, no, Kate, your bum does not look big in that'."

The Titanic star's first public outing after the birth of Mia was at the premiere of the film, Quills, when she left her husband at home holding the baby.

From Sky News:

"Love On The Rocks For Titanic Star"

Movie star Kate Winslet and her director husband Jim Threapleton have announced they are to separate.

A spokesman for the Titanic star stressed no one else was involved in the couple's decision to call it a day. "Kate Winslet and Jim Threapleton announced today that they have decided to separate. No other parties are involved in this amicable and respectful separation," said Robert Garlock.

Arguments -- The couple were married in 1998 after meeting on the set of Hideously Kinky. They have a child Mia, who was born in October last year.

The spokesman refused to reveal the reasons for the split but it is understood to have happened after weeks of arguments between the couple.

Winslet said she "knew" she had met the man of her dreams when she set eyes on him for the first time. "When you know, you know - that's what I have been told all my life - and now I know. I knew instantly. I thought, 'I'll have that'," she said before the marriage.

Baby ‘strengthened relationship’ -- In an interview before becoming pregnant she waxed lyrical about the importance of family life, saying she considered cosy domesticity to be more important than stardom or professional success.

And in September's edition of Style magazine, she said: "An actor's happiness has to come from something other than work," adding that having a baby had "strengthened the relationship although there are highs and lows and at times it's tough".

Winslet is due to meet the Prince of Wales later this month at the premiere of her new wartime film Enigma, produced by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger.

From the UK Times, September 5:

"Tearful Winslet Tells of Sadness at Breakdown," by Helen Studd

Kate Winslet appeared on the doorstep of her former flat without her wedding ring yesterday to speak of her sadness at the breakdown of her marriage.

The star of Titanic, who appeared close to tears, said that the split from Jim Threapleton had been an "amicable and mutual" decision and denied that anyone else was involved. Her voice breaking with emotion, she told reporters outside the North London flat: "Jim and I have great respect for each other. It is extremely sad but we are all fine."

Winslet moved out of the Surrey home she shared with Threapleton, her film director husband, six weeks ago after a series of arguments. The couple, who have an 11-month-old daughter, Mia, insist that there is "no malice" between them.

The pressures of Winslet’s work are thought to be have caused the separation. Threapleton’s family believe that her theatrical lifestyle did not suit him.

Wearing a blue denim jacket, flip-flops and hardly any make-up, Winslet, 25, said: "This is absolutely an amicable separation and it is a mutual decision between both of us. Jim and I are both communicating constantly and Mia remains the happy child that she always has been."

She left the flat in Holloway, North London, shortly afterwards, carrying her daughter.

News of the separation came as a surprise to many in the film industry, who thought the couple’s marriage in November 1998 would defy Hollywood stereotypes and endure. Winslet was always full of praise for her husband and their down-to-earth life. She said recently that her career came second to her home life.

Threapleton, the son of an RAF officer from Ripon, North Yorkshire, met Winslet in Morocco in August 1998 when he was third assistant director on Hideous Kinky, in which she played a single mother. The couple married in a deliberately simple ceremony at the Winslet family’s local church, All Saints, in Reading, Berkshire, three months later.

At the time she expressed fears that the furore over Titanic would scare him away. "Thank God he hung in there, most people couldn’t have taken it," she said.

She hinted that her work was causing a strain on the marriage in a recent interview with In Style. She said having a baby had strengthened the relationship but there were "highs and lows" and at times it was "tough".

Norman Threapleton, 83, Threapleton’s grandfather, said yesterday that he believed Winslet’s work commitments had come between the couple. He said: "She is a star and Jim is trying to make his way in his own particular field. It is difficult. I do not know whether all this theatrical and film life has gone down well with him."

Winslet is due to meet the Prince of Wales later this month at the premiere of her new film, Enigma.

From the UK Telegraph, September 5:

"Marriage Split is Very Sad But Amicable, Says Winslet," By Sally Pook

Kate Winslet appeared red-eyed and close to tears yesterday as she talked about the break-up of her marriage to Jim Threapleton, announced by her New York agent only hours earlier to widespread surprise.

The star of Titanic said outside her north London home that the separation was the result of a mutual decision and was "extremely sad".

Winslet, who was not wearing her wedding ring, pointedly refused to shed any light on the break-up, leaving observers to speculate that the yawning gap in the couple's status may have proved too much for a marriage widely regarded, by celebrity standards, as idyllic.

"This is an absolutely amicable separation and it is a mutual decision," she said, standing on the doorstep of her Georgian home in Islington. "Jim and I have great respect for each other. There is no malice at all. It is extremely sad but we are all fine."

The couple, who have an 11-month-old daughter, Mia, remained in touch, she said. "Jim and and I are both communicating constantly. Mia remains the happy child that she always has been."

No one else is said to be involved in the break-up but it has been reported that the separation came after weeks of arguments between the couple.

Threapleton's grandfather, Norman, revealed that relatives had been warned last week to expect an announcement on the future of the couple's three-year marriage. He hinted that Winslet's relentless rise as an actress had contributed to the break-up.

"I take the view that it was down to Kate's work that they split up," he said. "It is unfortunate it has come between them. She is a star. Jim is a bit of a quiet type and is trying to make his way in his own particular field. It is difficult. He wants to be recognised eventually in his own right and not to be just Kate's husband."

The couple met on the set of Hideous Kinky in Morocco, where Threapleton was third assistant director. He was believed to be at the couple's house in Cornwall yesterday.

Jim has spoken briefly to reporters. This article is from the September 7 issue of The Mirror:

'No hope' as husband heaps praise on Kate

Kate Winslet's estranged husband Jim Threapleton praised her as a mother yesterday but revealed that they had no plans to get back together.

Heartbroken Jim, reunited with their baby daughter Mia 90 minutes after Titanic star Kate, 25, had left her flat, said: "Kate is a spectacular mother. We are in constant contact and looking to have a positive future with Mia. That's the only important thing at the moment. I'll be around here all weekend, but no, unfortunately, that doesn't mean we are getting back together. Kate will obviously be away. We won't be under the same roof."

Asked if he hoped for a reconciliation, he said: "That's not even worth talking about at the moment, to you or with Kate."

It was the first time Jim had seen 11-month-old Mia since the couple announced earlier this week that their marriage was over. Jim, 26, was still wearing his wedding ring yesterday but Kate's was missing when she was pictured a few days ago.

Cuddling his daughter outside the flat in Holloway, North London, Jim said: "There has been a lot of speculation that Kate hasn't been taking an equal role in bringing up Mia this year. This is absolutely untrue. Kate is a spectacular mother. I'm extremely proud of both her and Mia and I'm just looking forward to being there for both of them. We are both taking an absolutely equal share in looking after Mia."

Remarks by family members:

Jim's grandfather Norman, 82, spoke of the family's "great sadness" at the collapse of the marriage. Speaking from his home outside Leeds, the retired design engineer said: "The whole family are very saddened by this. We were, and will always remain, very fond of Kate. She's a lovely lady. I only learned of the news officially last night, although I'd been warned by Jim's father it might come to light. Before that, there was nothing to suggest Kate and Jim would part. We last saw them in April when they seemed very happy together."

Norman blamed the split on the pressures of Kate's work. He said: "She's a star while Jim is trying to make his way in his own field. Jim is a bit of a quiet type and I don't know whether all this film life has gone down well with him. It's not really his thing. He wants to be recognised in his own right - write his scripts and get away from things - and not just be Kate's husband."

Paying tribute to Kate, he added: "The first time I saw her I thought she was a lovely girl. That impression has only been strengthened on subsequent meetings. She's a down-to-earth girl."

Kate's parents, Sally and Roger, refused to comment at the family home in Reading, Berks. Roger said: "We're not saying anything. It's entirely in Kate's hands." [UK Mirror]

September 10: Kate addressed rumors about the reason for the separation:

The 25-year-old actress was speaking after weekend newspaper reports that [Dougray] Scott, her co-star in forthcoming movie Enigma, had been "comforting" her since her split with husband Jim Threapleton, 27, last week... Winslet, looking tired and drawn as she left her Holloway flat with baby Mia this afternoon, said of the alleged romance: "That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard. I don't know anything about Dougray and Sarah and their situation so I can't really comment on that."

Sept 18: Jim has spoken about recent rumors:

Jim Threapleton has denied he's got a new girlfriend. Threapleton says the woman he was pictured with at the weekend is a friend of both him and Kate Winslet.

He says speculation about the couple's love life is not helping their situation and insists he talks to Kate all the time. "Speculation about me or Kate going out with other people at the moment doesn't help our situation one bit," Threapleton tells The Mirror. "Kate and I continue to work together, and we talk all the time. Above all else our main concern is to provide a solid future for Mia."

Source: Press Association

Here’s the Mirror article:

Just Good Friends

We’ve got to think of baby Mia, says Kate’s ex

He has kept quiet since the dramatic break up of his marriage. But now Jim Threapleton has broken his silence over the sensational split two weeks ago from Kate Winslet.

The showbiz world was stunned when the couple ended their three-year relationship, but last night Jim told 3am how he and Kate had forged an uneasy alliance.

He said they were putting aside their differences to build a bright future of their 11-month-old daughter, Mia. They have also decided NOT to part company on the professional front and their production firm, Ultra Films, will continue.

And nice guy Jim was keen to stress that the attractive brunette with whom he was pictured house hunting in Notting Hill is not his new love interest. Jim, 27, said: "It's a difficult time for both me and Kate, and I didn't want people getting the wrong idea. I know this sounds corny, but she really is just a good friend of mine and Kate. We went to university together. There's nothing more than that - if there was I'd tell you. I promise."

Jim went on: "I wasn't even house hunting. I was just looking in an estate agent's window. Speculation about me or Kate going out with other people at the moment doesn't help our situation one bit. House hunting is something for the future, but it's not my immediate priority."

Kate and Mia are living at her old flat in London's Holloway, while Jim is staying with friends near Notting Hill Gate.

He told Eva: "Kate and I continue to work together - and we talk all the time. There are a few film projects still in the pipeline which will come to fruition in the next few years. But, above all else our main concern is to provide a solid future for Mia."

Yesterday Kate took Mia shopping - and the little cherub obliged with a lovely grin for our snapper.

From The Daily Mail, Sept 28:

'I Still Believe In Love,' By Baz Bamigboye

Kate Winslet talked last night about the 'turbulence' of the break-up of her marriage.

The 25-year-old actress admitted she had been feeling ‘tired and drawn' since her split from husband Jim Threapleton, but said she was looking forward to leaving Britain later this autumn to work on a movie in Texas, alongside Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey.

She dismissed rumours that she and fellow Enigma star Dougray Scott had been having an affair as 'laughable'. "It's absolutely and completely laughable. I know nothing about Dougray's personal situation," she said.

And she also talked about why she felt unable to attend the royal premiere of Enigma, which opens today. "The break-up has come with a whole lot of outside things you have to contend with. It was too much."

But, in spite of the heartbreak of the past few weeks, she insisted she 'still believed in love'. "I'd be a fool to say I didn't. At the moment, though, all the love I have is for my child." And her work, of course.

Kate's new project, The Life Of David Gale, is a hard-hitting drama about anti-death penalty activists, being made by Alan Parker. "At a time like this, when things have been a little turbulent for me, it's fantastic to be rewarded with the leading lady role in an American film. It's bloody fantastic," she told me.

Adding to her excitement is the fact that daughter Mia, now nearly a year old, will accompany her for the two months of filming. "Mia's coming to Texas, and Daddy will come and visit," she said.

"People have been sneering at that word 'amicable', but it (our split) really is just that," she said. "Jim and I speak daily and he sees a lot of Mia." As if to prove the point, the phone rings. It's Jim, checking to see if Kate and Mia are OK - and whether the usual posse of photographers is hanging about outside. It is.

Though their marriage is being terminated by lawyers using cold logic, Kate insisted there was still warmth between her and Jim. She won't explain why the three-year marriage collapsed, but those close to her believe the couple had been struggling for a while to keep it going. The imbalance in their careers - she the international movie star, he the assistant director - was clearly a factor.

Even so, Kate said she would never discourage other young couples from tying the knot. "Marrying somebody is a decision based on love and instinct, and that is all I would say about that. In terms of whether I would get married again, only time will tell. Time is a great healer."

The only person unaffected by the break-up so far, she added, was Mia. "She's completely unaware. Our priorities are to keep her as safe and as secure as possible."

Source: The Daily Mail

Libby Brooks has written a thoughtful commentary for the Guardian about why so many people care about Kate:

Why we care about Kate: Just another tedious celebrity break-up? Not at all, says Libby Brooks, because Kate Winslet holds a special place in our hearts. She's the real thing.
It was with only a brief twinge of guilt over waste of newspaper resources that I snaffled a selection of colour prints from the office last autumn, and brought them home to argue with my best friend over which looked best on the front of our fridge. The prints in question came from a collection of photographs released by the actor Kate Winslet, and her husband Jim Threapleton, shortly after the birth of their daughter Mia in October last year. My favourite showed Winslet, wearing a knitted zip-up top straight off the peg from Warehouse, staring into the camera with an expression of consuming, if weary, joy, as though at any moment she might throw back her head at the thrill of it all, or burst into tears. Her forehead was touching that of her husband, who was watching intently over the tiny sleeping form of their baby girl, around whom the couple had linked hands. It looked like an advert for love.

So it was with a visceral 'thwump' of sadness that I saw the headlines yesterday, announcing Winslet's separation from the 'glorious-looking boy with blue eyes' after three years of marriage. Silly, of course, to feel sorry about a situation one knows nothing about, involving people one has never met. Embarrassing, to be so trivially concerned, on a morning that also brought news of the implosion of the UN Conference on Racism and the continuing row over illegal immigrants.

If we can turn over the page to avoid pictures of famine victims, we must surely be similarly inured to the molasses of celebrity melodrama manufactured or otherwise spread thickly across the mass media each day. But empathy is where you find it in these compassion-fatigued times.

The following days will doubtless witness a veritable tsunami of speculation, as the unravelling of the Winslet-Threapleton union is eviscerated for all to see. A spare statement from her publicist on Monday night stated that no other parties were involved, and that their daughter would remain the first priority in what was 'an amicable and respectful separation'. Fuelled by her own apparently contradictory remarks in a recent interview with InStyle magazine, in which she said that having a baby had strengthened her relationship, rumour and gossip will wreathe the unhappy couple. Was she too successful? Was there an affair? Were they too young?

And will the witnessing public care? Yes, I suspect, and more than usual. Kate Winslet has always stood apart from the celebrity panoply of talents, teases and tragic heroines. A redoubtable actor, she radiates a fearless emotional honesty in person as well as in performance. Intelligent, immoderate and inconsistent, she calls a spade a bloody shovel.

Her rejection of the trappings of superstardom never felt like a pose. Her desire to be seen as natural never overtook her determination to remain complex. She served bangers and mash at her wedding because she wanted to. Winslet has always come across as a creature who runs at life full tilt and, because of that, there will be no schadenfreude now that she has briefly fallen flat on her face.

Since any old body can become our intimate tea-break chum, via the pages of Hello! or a few frames of daytime television, we demand authenticity far more than we do aspiration or knowingness. We don't need our stars to share the joke which is, anyhow, on us, since it's always our money, their pockets. As we become increasingly confined by the hyper-mediation of the modern world, we crave the authentic far more than the fantasy.

And it's not such a mystery in whom we choose to invest. For all her porcelain perfection and super-couple status, Nicole Kidman's raucous personality was continually slipping out under the wire. Following her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has excelled in keeping it ever more cheekily real: arriving at a premiere clutching the hands of her best girlfriends, naughty asides about wanting a man who is taller than her, that memorable photograph of her, arms aloft, exiting the divorce lawyer's office for the final time.

Victoria Beckham, whose autobiography Learning to Fly has been hard to avoid this week, may embrace all the fame-related fraff that Winslet so loudly rejects. But there's something gloriously raw about the way she totters from fashion show to football match, giving Naomi what for, loving her man, doting on her we'an. She revels in her some would say inexplicable celebrity entitlement, her lifestyle an extended two-fingers up to the kids at school who laughed at her spots.

Kate Winslet is particularly popular with women. Her beauty is of the friendly variety, and any threat from it is neutralised by her constantly yo-yo-ing weight. Her bravura declarations in favour of cake, interspersed with bouts of weight consciousness, reflect the confusion most women feel about the shape they are, the shape they know they ought to feel comfortable with, and the shape they want. Her recent post-pregnancy sloughing of four stones, and accompanying comments that her bottom 'looked like purple sprouting broccoli', were typical of her approach.

Women were similarly encouraged by her domestic arrangements. Threapleton, whom she met on the set of the film Hideous Kinky, had agreed to stay at home to look after Mia while Winslet pursued her film commitments. Inevitably, it has been alleged that her continuing stardom, and her husband's frustration at his own lack of career success, put a strain on the marriage.

Yet it seemed like the ideal negotiation a thoroughly 21st-century determination that men should be as involved in childcare as their partners, and an ego-free acknowledgement of the economic realities of their relationship. We wanted it to work.

And we wanted to be right. Just as we pretend that we can differentiate between real and fake celebrities, so we flatter ourselves that we can spot a healthy coupling. Winslet's ordinariness was made more believable by her coupling with non-celeb Threapleton. She was capable of loving outside the bubble, and not hostage to the desperate pair-bonding of the famous.

If growing older involves a gradual winnowing out of dreams, then the first to go are those hopeless, hopeful fancies of everlasting, effortless romance. We replace them with our own hard-learned lessons: that sometimes loving someone madly isn't enough, that the best you can wish for is that a lover will show you kindness, even when they're leaving you.

But watching Winslet's love writ large, we allowed our own more lavish dreams a moment to flex again. And, romantics that we are, we relished the sparkle.

This article is written by an actress and offers some insight into marriage between a successful woman and a not-so-successful man. While there is some speculation involved, I find the article ('been there, done that') very interesting.

'I'm Sorry, Kate But Celebrity Marriages Are Doomed To Fail: And I Should Know'
By Fiona Fullerton

Stunned disbelief would, I think, be an accurate description of the reaction to the news that Kate Winslet was separating from her husband Jim Threapleton after less than three years of marriage. It was another of those fairytale liaisons, and Kate never seemed to tire of telling us so.

I wasn't surprised, however, when I read of the reason given for the marital breakdown. Jim, a film director, was said to be frustrated by his wife's continuing success while he had essentially become a househusband. They have my sympathy as I, too, have experienced both sides of the dilemma that faces couples in the same business, when one career takes off seemingly at the expense of the other.

Many years ago I was dating a young actor who initially seemed to revel in my celebrity status. After about four months, however, he became sullen, moaning about his lack of work, and started questioning my feelings for him. Every time my photograph appeared in a newspaper, he would say: 'Look, they've cut me out of the picture.' But I was mad about him and reassured him constantly.

There were shades of that same desperation to justify her love for Jim, in Kate's blissful declarations in interviews before their split. 'He is so dashing. He makes me laugh my head off,' she said recently. 'Marriage has made us more appreciative of each other. Every day I look at him and say: I really fancy him.' Every interview she gave was full of superlatives about her husband. It was almost as if she was saying to him: 'If you don't believe I love you, then look here - it's in black and white in this newspaper or magazine.'

My relationship with the actor foundered when he had an affair with a girl he met in a club. It obviously restored his self esteem but it ruined my trust.

Loss of self-esteem is probably at the heart of Jim Threapleton's disillusionment with marriage. He stays at home looking after the baby while Kate blossoms again in the limelight - looking slimmer and more beautiful than ever. Instead of shouting orders from behind the cameras himself, he has been making bottles, and changing nappies. Suddenly, he's no one.

I can understand those feelings. During my first marriage to actor Simon MacCorkindale, I found myself increasingly sidelined. Having been the most famous partner in the marriage initially and a household name in the mid-Seventies, he suddenly took over from me in the fame stakes. Meanwhile, I started to work less and become increasingly jealous of his success. The constant attention from his leading ladies didn't help either. I was only 21 and in need of constant reassurance, and slowly began to lose my self-esteem.

It's even more difficult for a man to cope with a woman's success. The situation is not uncommon in show business relationships - one partner is often more successful than the other, and professional jealousy is rife.

The constant geographical separations finally killed my first marriage, but they should not have been a problem for Kate Winslet if her husband was happy to travel with her. That said, being a hanger-on on a film set is a very uncomfortable existence, especially if you work in the same industry.

I spent some years with a boyfriend who was a TV producer. Like Jim Threapleton, he hated being in the public eye and was much happier behind a behind the camera than in front of it. If we went to a public event, people would shout 'Fiona!' and show no interest in my partner, which is difficult for any man with a fragile ego.

Jim Threapleton is said to be good at his job as an assistant film director, but virtually nobody cares about his ability or success - only his wife's. That must be very galling.

The arrival of baby Mia, 11 months ago was greeted with joy, but must have put strain on their marriage. As any mother will tell you, the arrival of a baby changes the dynamic within the family, and the husband can often feel as if he is being replaced in the affection stakes. With your hormones rushing all over the place, extreme tiredness and an overwhelming love for the new baby, it takes a superhuman effort to remain the sexy beast he fell in love with. For an insecure husband, even one unquestionably devoted to his daughter, it may have left him floundering for a while.

The issue of who looks after the children is one which even the most unstarry, devoted couples often find hard to manage. Originally, Kate and Jim wanted to share the childcare. But, in practice, Kate was offered so many roles she could not turn them down, while for Jim the work just didn't materialise. He was left, most of the time, literally holding the baby. Kate, meanwhile, would have found herself increasingly torn between her domestic needs and her professional priorities.

As an actress and mother, I can assure you that something's got to give.

There is no such thing as having it all - you have to decide whether your emotional happiness takes precedence over your career and fame, or whether you cannot live without the limelight.

When I married my husband Neil Shackell and had baby Lucy in 1995, we made a conscious decision to keep the family unit together as much as possible - my career would have to fit in. Having waited so long to find such happiness, why would I want to jeopardise it with constant separations and temptations? But I was 38 when I made that decision. Kate is only 25, with a long career in front of her and can see the rewards coming. It would have been far too early for her to make such a sacrifice.

So often, a man can begin to resent the very thing that attracted him to a woman in the first place. In the past, my boyfriends - time and time again - just could not handle my fame and glamour, even though that was what attracted them to me initially.

Jim knew Kate was a movie star who was lusted after by millions of men when he married her. But he fell for her humour and down-to-earth qualities. One assumes he must have thought about the challenges that being married to such a famous woman would present. But maybe, even though he loves her, he has been unable to come to terms with it all.

In my opinion, the most successful partnerships are those where the people are not from the same profession. Kristin Scott Thomas has a solid marriage to a French gynecologist and they lead a normal existence in France. Patricia Hodge is married to a musical publisher who is content to stay out of the limelight, as is Joanna Lumley's husband, operatic conductor Stephen Barlow, and both actresses have happy marriages.

My own husband, Neil, is a successful businessman in his own right, so he understands the pressures and yet is completely unrelated to my work.

Hopefully, Kate will one day find someone like that, too. She deserves to be happy.

Source: Daily Mail

The above item reminded me of an observation by a reporter who attended Elton John's White Tie & Tiara Ball in July:

No one was more aware of the attention she received than Kate. Though all eyes were on her when she made a stunning entrance to the bash in a sexy black Dolce & Gabanna gown, the actress made sure that Jim was not ignored. As photographers surrounded the Titanic star, Kate grabbed Jim, who was standing shyly in a corner, and directed attention away from herself by telling journalists about her husband's beautifully tailored suit. However, despite their deep love for each other, it was obvious that Jim was living in Kate's shadow. Throughout the evening, which was packed with A-list celebrities including Hugh Grant, Ronan Keating and Hollywood star Kevin Spacey, Kate chatted happily with her fellow actors. But, though she relaxed and enjoyed the ball, the actress was also constantly attentive to her husband and made sure to include him in conversations.