I do feel blessed to have started a new chapter

Hugh Bonneville on turbulent few years that led to a new happiness

- - BY NICOLA METHVEN TV Editor

The actor, best known for his roles as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey and Mr Brown in the Paddington movies, split from wife Lulu Williams two years ago, after 25 years of marriage and a son together.

Lulu, who supported him throughout his acting career, was said to be blindsided when he told her it was over.

Looking back over the past decade, Hugh hints that losing his mother, brother and father within a few years of each other rocked him harder than many might have realised and given him new perspectives. He explained: "In terms of my outlook on life, having lost three significant members of my family, it's made me more fatalistic."

Hugh's mother, Patricia, died suddenly in 2014 - not long after he discovered that she worked for MI6. He said: "The admin of the funeral and everything numbed the grief for a while.

"I didn't read any of the letters of commiseration or condolence we received until a year later, when I took them all with me to India.

"I was doing a film but had one weekend off, so I went on my own to this incredibly peaceful, quiet hotel in the middle of nowhere and read all the letters and absolutely let it all out.

"All the emotion. That was a very cathartic thing."

There was further shock when his brother Nigel died in his sleep in 2017.