Kit Harington and Rose Leslie’s Game of Thrones romance may not have lasted on-screen,
but their relationship was just beginning behind the scenes. This couple will forever be grateful
to the show for giving them a family that may not have existed if they hadn’t co-starred.
The duo went from keeping their relationship a secret for four years to getting married and
having a child. But not everything was always so magical, they had to overcome a lot of
difficulties. From having to deny cheating scandals and getting Kit through a serious
alcohol addiction, this couple have faced a lot. It was the fall of 2011, and Leslie Rose had
landed a guest role on the second season of Game of Thrones. While it's not known exactly when she
and Kit Harington began filming, the pair had met before being cast as love interests. The
actress was more than happy to be working with him because they got along so well in real life, so
it made their character’s story more believable. It didn’t take long for the couple to fall in love
on set, and it was the start of one beautiful romance. Looking back on his favorite memories
from the series, Harington said the best moments happened while filming season 2 in Iceland.
"The country is beautiful, the Northern Lights are magical, and it was there that I fell in
love. If you're already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show,
it becomes very easy to fall in love," he said. In one interview, the actor was asked if he felt
the duo had a meet-cute, and the answer was a resounding yes. He is sure lots of people
feel that way about their romances, but he knows theirs really was special. They
were on an amazing TV show that was going global while in Iceland, playing lovers.
Hell of a romantic meet-cute, might we say! “The whole thing felt horrifically romantic. Doing
something like this where it's two people meeting for the first time, and you can transport yourself
to what butterflies felt like. I just remember thinking, ‘God, I'm in trouble here. This could
be trouble.’ Wonderful trouble, that is,” he said. It took nearly four years for the private couple
to confirm their relationship during their first red carpet at the Olivier
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXsJTlftH88 0:16) Awards. But, from there,
things moved quickly, well, for us at least! A year after confirming their relationship,
they moved into the actor’s house together. When asked about the new living situation,
Kit said it was all going very well, though Rose did have some big changes in store for their home.
"I've moved in with my best friend, Rose. So, I'm very, very happy. I said to her, 'Look, darling,
this is important that it's our space, not just mine. Move anything, change anything, chuck
anything out.' I went to the shops, came back, and said, 'What did you decide?' And she said, 'We're
moving the kitchen downstairs,'" he recalled. Although, their relationship almost didn’t make
it when they moved in. Harington recalled an April Fool’s Day prank he pulled on Leslie
where he put a severed head made in his likeness in the fridge. When she opened the refrigerator,
she was petrified and hadn’t even figured it was her boyfriend’s head.
It caused her to scream and fall to the ground. “She was in tears, and I was there going,
‘April Fools.’ It didn’t go down well. She told me that if I did it ever again, that would be it,
and I think that’s marriage included,” he said. This caused him to pull less harmful April Fool’s
Day pranks in the future. The number of props at his disposal had diminished,
and he wasn’t sure what to do. Rose has a favorite almond milk and won’t drink any other brand. So,
he wrote an article about how this company was going under because of Brexit. Unfortunately
for Kit, his prank worked a little too well. “Now, this backfired because she immediately
rang my PA and got her to bulk order this almond milk with my credit card. I ended up spending 150
quid on almond milk,” he said. Here's something Jon Snow now knows, don’t mess with Ygritte.
Despite his continuous pranks, a few months after moving in together, the couple revealed they were
officially engaged in a very old-school way. They announced it in The Times of London newspaper.
Kit later shared that he had initially made some romantic plans for the moment he popped
the question. He was going to string up some lights in trees and do the whole romantic setup,
but he couldn’t wait any longer and ended up doing it on a trip to the English countryside.
“It was highly romantic. We were under this beautiful night sky and had a log
fire burning and red wine, and I blew my load early. Sorry, that's a bad expression. I meant
I popped my question a bit early,” he said. In 2018, Leslie and Harington walked down the
aisle in a romantic ceremony at a castle belonging to the actress’s family. And, of course, plenty of
their Game of Thrones co-stars were in attendance, along with 200 other guests. The wedding did seem
to have a lot of references from the series. For one, the invite featured stamps of Jon Snow.
The groom’s brother also managed to work a line from the show into his best man speech,
telling his sibling, “Looking at the woman you’re marrying, it shows you do know something,
Jon Snow.” What a sweet twist on the famous line! Not long after their wedding, the couple started
facing many obstacles. The first was when Kit was forced to deny cheating rumors. A
Russian model and actress claimed she had an affair with Jon Snow himself. Fortunately,
it was all proven to be false. Then Kit had to say goodbye to
Game of Thrones as the final season aired. The actor explained that he and Rose were excited
to finish that chapter of their lives. The couple had actively been trying to distance
themselves from their fictional counterparts, and they didn’t want to be defined by it anymore.
“Once the show finishes, we get to break free of it, a bit, and just be us,
which is a really nice feeling," he said. Even though there was a lot of excitement
from him for the show to end, it sent the actor spiraling. Just a few months before the couple’s
first wedding anniversary, he checked into a treatment center. The actor’s rep said
he was utilizing the break in his schedule as an opportunity to spend some time at a
wellness retreat to deal with personal issues. It eventually came out that he was battling an
alcohol addiction, and he gave some insight into what triggered it all.
“This is a very addictive job. I go out, stand on stage, and get applause,
and it’s a huge rush and a high. The trouble is, I never want to come down from that high,” he said.
It came as a shock to the people around the actor because he kept his addiction very quiet.
After a few months in the treatment center, he went home to his wife. He seemed to be
looking better, feeling better and healthier than ever. He also opened
up about his recovery when he got back home. "You get to a place where you feel like you are
a bad person. You feel like you are a shameful person. And you feel that there's no way out,
that's just who you are. And getting sober is the process of going, 'No,
I can change.’ Now, I’ve learned how I do that, and I’m much happier for it,” he said.
The whole ordeal caused immense stress for his new wife. Leslie praised her husband’s
ability to recognize his addiction issues. She also explained that if it were not for rehab,
he would be in a very different place now instead of being sober for several years. The actress also
praised the AA community for providing a loving space for Harington to feel heard and not alone.
Rose understands that it is vital for Kit to recognize himself as an addict, and it will be
something he is forever going to be aware of. "I've learned a lot about addiction, but it's
on him whether he chooses to drink again. No amount of nannying is going to be able
to stop him from doing what he decides to do. I don't choose to put that pressure on myself.
The responsibility of his behavior is on him. It's not on me to guard him from it," she said.
A lot of tough love, well said! Even though Game of Thrones took a toll on Kit,
he reflected on it often over the years as one of the best things he’s ever done. The show changed
his life both professionally and personally. "It gave me my future family. The last ten years,
you could not ask for a better job to have in your 20s than to be an actor in Game of
Thrones. The most important job I'll ever have is about to finish. Well, not the
most. Hopefully, I'll be a father," he said. In September 2020, his dreams came true as the
couple announced they were expecting their first child. Then the happy pair welcomed their son,
and life couldn’t be better. The actress did open up about how she and Harington shared
parenting duties during filming. According to her, it was a glorious time because they had an
understanding that when their son would cry in the middle of the night, it was on her husband
to go and look after him. This was purely because she had to wake up early to work.
Over six months after welcoming their child, Kit spoke about his fatherhood journey for the
first time. He shared what a major change it had been for him and his wife. He also noted
that even though he had been warned that a baby would change everything, he was still surprised.
People told them that what they were about to go through was big, and they had no way
of knowing how big it was until it happened. “What surprises you is you go, 'Oh, this goes
on forever!' You don't get a break from it. It's a beautiful thing, it really is," he said.
Harington once again credited Game of Thrones for the life that he has
today. He feels very privileged to have been in the show not only because of how
it helped his career but his personal life. “There’s a baby boy downstairs and my wife,
who I met on the show. I looked at it from a perspective of anxiety,
wondering what if that didn’t happen. I’ve got no reason to be doing that now. Our children will be
able to see the genesis of their parents getting together, which is quite a wonderful thought,
really. I thank the show for everything,” he said. Kit Harington and Rose Leslie are a prominent
on-screen couple, and they are growing into prominent off-screen couple too.
We are happy that Kit is now sober and living his life to the fullest in a healthy way with
his family. We look forward to seeing what these two have in store for the future. Let
us know in the comments below what you think about this story. This has been Rumour Juice.