Imogen Poots has said her former engagement to James Norton was often depicted in the media, but that “no one on the outside sees what you share with another person”.
The 28 Weeks Later actor, who was engaged to Happy Valley’s Norton before they split in 2023, said in a new interview that the paparazzi would often follow her and Norton, calling it “so absurd”.
Poots, 36, told Tatler that the paparazzi’s relationship with celebrities is completely different today compared to 50 years ago, explaining: “I always think back to when Meryl Streep was dating in her twenties. There’s plenty of pictures of her at premieres, but only one or two of her on the street. It was such a different time.”
The former couple, who met while starring together in the play Belleville in 2017, began dating in 2018 before getting engaged in 2022.
Speaking about the break-up earlier this year, Norton, 40, described it as an abrupt split and “the most monumental change”.
“It happened in a very abrupt way, and it happened kind of to me, and I thought that I was on a path,” he said. “I was about to have kids, about to get married, all that kind of stuff, and my life just turned around, completely changed direction.”
He continued: “And I thought I lost the person, but I also lost the life that I was about to lead, and the kids that we named, all that kind of stuff.”
“And actually, in the last year and a half, I have gone through the most monumental change as a result, and I feel like I’ve grown up, I feel like I’ve become a man.”
Norton also told The Sunday Times that the split wasn’t his decision, saying: “Some of the choices recently weren’t mine, yet I don’t feel begrudging.”
“I just mean that you have a certain amount of control over your life and choices you make, and at other times you don’t.”
When asked by Tatler if she was in a new relationship or coupled up, Poots replied: “Not necessarily”.
Read the full feature in the November issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from Thursday 2 October.
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