Beloved British comedian Rowan Atkinson and Sunetra Sastry were happily married
with two children for twenty-five years … that is, until he fell in love with another woman
who is thirty years younger than him.
The actor had to decide between following his heart or keeping his family together … and
his decision was going to change their lives forever.
Stay tuned, Juicers, because in this video, we're going to take a deep dive into Rowan
Atkinson's marriage, his record-breaking divorce that took mere seconds, and how his affair
tore his family apart.
Sunetra Sastry met Rowan in 1986 while working as a make-up artist for his co-star Stephen
Fry in "Black Adder."
When Rowan spotted her on set, he was immediately attracted to her.
In fact, he asked his co-star and good friend Fry if they could swap make-up artists so
that Rowan could get to know her a little better.
It didn't take long for a connection to form between the pair, and they were soon smitten
with one another.
The couple dated for about three years, and in 1989, Rowan got down on one knee and popped
the big question.
Sunetra was over the moon with their engagement, and a year later, they were married.
The couple was married in February next year at the famous Russian Tea Room in New York
City, and Fry was Atkinson's best man at the ceremony.
Over the next few years, things were going well for the couple.
Rowan's career was on the rise, and he was quickly gaining popularity for his comedy
sketches.
In 1993 the couple welcomed their first child, Benjamin.
Just two years later, in 1995, they were blessed with a daughter they named Lily.
Rowan and Sunetra were overjoyed with their new roles as parents, and with the actor's
career gaining traction, things seemed like they couldn't get any better.
Around the same time, Sastry decided to quit her professional work as a make-up artist
so that she could focus all of her time on her children and the family.
She also wanted to be able to support her husband with his growing career and figured
it would be easier if she stayed at home.
As the years went by, the couple remained fairly under the radar, and everything seemed
perfectly fine with the Atkinson family.
Unfortunately, everything changed when a new woman came into their lives.
Rowan met fellow actress Louise Ford in Simon Gray's play 'Quartermaine's Terms' in 2013.
At the time, Louise was around 32-years old, making her 30-years younger than the actor.
She was also dating another comedian, James Acaster.
As it turns out, despite both being committed to other people, Rowan and Louise couldn't
stop themselves from falling for one another.
After working together, Atkinson realized that he had fallen in love with her, and he
had to make a decision … Was he going to do something about his feelings for Louise,
or was he going to stay faithful to his marriage with Sunetra?
While we don't know what happened behind closed doors, Atkinson either told his wife about
the affair, or she somehow found out about it on her own.
Whatever the case may have been, Sunetra was undoubtedly heartbroken about the fact that
her husband had feelings for another woman.
She wasn't going to tolerate Rowan's affair, and in 2014 she filed for divorce, citing
'unreasonable behavior' as the ground.
The divorce papers didn't specify what kind of "unreasonable behavior" of her famous husband
allowed Sunetra to get such a quick divorce.
A head of family law, Slater and Gordon, noted that it could be something as little as "he
never listens" or he "always wants to go out with friends."
The divorce was granted in a mere 65 seconds since Atkinson wasn't even present for the
hearing in court.
It was official, Rowan and Sunetra were no longer married.
She also received a $10 million worth of mansion from her ex-husband as a part of the divorce
deal.
Rowan, on the other hand, moved into his £4million London cottage.
"Sunetra was deeply upset to be replaced by such a younger woman," a source told The Sun.
While the former couple never publicly commented about the affair, when the actor publicly
started dating Lousie shortly after his divorce, it confirmed what the rumor mill had been
churning.
Rowan had left his wife for another woman.
His affair and subsequent divorce were criticized heavily by the UK tabloids.
Rowan built his career on being a seemingly innocent comedian and family man, so when
his fans found out that he had left his family for another woman, it changed the way they
saw him.
And it wasn't just his fans that saw the actor in a different light.
His own daughter, Lily, shared her thoughts about her parents' divorce on social media.
She described his behavior as 'a dick move', referring to the fact that her father started
publicly showing his new relationship right after the divorce.
It was clear that Lily was incredibly angry and disappointed at her father for his actions
and also proceeded to call her father, a "Dick Head."
Lily decided not to use her father's surname and adopted her mother's maiden name, Sastry.
Their son Benjamin too didn't seem happy and shared that he was in no way interested in
following in his father's footsteps.
Benjamin went on to become a trainee officer.
However, Lily did choose to follow in her father's footsteps and works as an actress
known for her roles in movies like Johnny English Reborn, Mr. Bean's Holiday, and Tooth.
We also can't forget about Louise's boyfriend, James Acaster, whom she was seeing around
the same time as her affair with Rowan.
During one of his standup routines in 2019, Acaster revealed he learned that his girlfriend
Louise Ford had dumped him for Atkinson by reading it in the newspaper.
He and Louise had been together for two years before she met Rowan.
James confessed that he noticed a distance forming between himself and Ford after she
took up the role alongside Atkinson.
However, he felt like he had no reason to suspect that she was having an affair.
It wasn't until she and Rowan had gone public with their relationship that James realized
the truth.
Before Louise began publicly dating Atkinson, she gained a fair amount of attention for
her role as Kate Middleton in Channel 4's "The Windsors," a satirical take on the royal
family.
However, she was not beginning to draw a different
kind of media attention due to her very controversial
romantic life.
So, despite the harsh criticism Rowan and Louise were receiving from his family and
the press, the new couple continued their relationship.
They soon moved into the actor's £4 million cottages in North London.
However, the couple did try their best to keep their romance out of the spotlight.
They attempted to keep public outings to a minimum and avoided commenting about their
relationship with the public.
Before you think that the 30-year age gap was going to be an issue, it didn't stop the
couple from taking a huge step forward in their relationship.
In November 2017, Ford flaunted her growing baby bump while shopping in North London,
confirming reports that Atkinson was going to become a father for the third time.
The couple later welcomed their first child together, a daughter they named Isla Atkinson.
Nearly three months after their daughter's birth, Atkinson and Ford were spotted together
in public for the first time in a year when they attended musical icon Sir Andrew Lloyd
Webber's 70th birthday bash.
But since then, they've done their best to keep their relationship as low-key as possible.
The couple has now been together for around eight years.
So it's only natural to assume that Rowan and Louise might be making plans to get married.
While there has been some wedding buzz surrounding the couple, as far as we know, they don't
have any official plans to get married … yet.
Perhaps Atkinson has no interest in getting married again after his first marriage failed,
or maybe the couple is happy with the current status of their relationship.
That said, there is every possibility that Atkinson, who is already 67 years old, might
walk down the aisle with his beautiful girlfriend.
For now, all we can do is wait until the duo makes any public announcements.
On the other hand, it is possible that Rowan is avoiding a wedding because of how it may
affect his first two children, Lily and Benjamin.
In 2019, the actor made the shocking announcement that he would be taking some time away from
acting to take care of his daughter Isla so that Lousie could focus on her own acting
career.
People couldn't help but wonder how that would have made his other two children feel, considering
Sunetra was the stay-at-home mother while Rowan was working on his career.
It seemed as though he was willing to take time away from his work as an actor for his
daughter with Louise, but not for his other two children when they were growing up.
While Rowan chose to follow his heart and end his marriage of almost thirty years to
be with another woman, it's clear that his decision did some damage to his family and
his reputation as an actor.
We're not sure if he's been able to mend his relationship with his children, but perhaps
he's taking this time away from the spotlight to fix things.
We can't imagine how difficult the divorce and affair must have been for Sunetra and
their kids, so we can only hope that they're able to heal from everything that happened
and find happiness in their lives with their blended family.