Martin Freeman, 53, looks smitten with French actress girlfriend Rachel Benaissa, 30, on red carpet
The couple began dating in 2021.
Martin Freeman and his French actress girlfriend Rachel Benaissa appeared loved up as they attended the Olivier Awards yesterday.
The Sherlock actor, 53, and the Normal People star, 30, went public with their romance in 2021 following Martin’s split from long-term partner Amanda Abbington in 2016.
Martin and Rachel posed with their arms around each other and beaming for the cameras at the star-studded event, with Rachel wearing an eye-catching white co-ord set.
Ghost Stories actor Martin, meanwhile, rocked a unique black and red patterned suit with a black shirt and matching sunglasses.
It’s a rare public appearance for the two, who often keep their romance under wraps.
They have only made a handful of public appearances including attending the 2022 Bafta Awards together.
The couple began dating in 2021, often keeping their romance out of the limelight (Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images) Rachel is best known for starring in Normal People as well as Netflix film Irish Wish (Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images)Rachel is best known for appearing in BBC hit Normal People, alongside Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones.
She also starred in Lindsay Lohan’s Netflix film Irish Wish, Aisling Bea’s sitcom This Way Up, and an episode of Murder in Provence.
Martin shares two teenage children – Joe, 17, and Grace, 15, – with his former partner Amanda.
He previously spoke to Radio Times about co-parenting with his ex, saying: ‘Me and their mum [Amanda] don’t live together so there are times where they’re inevitably going to not be with you, or when they say, “Maybe not this weekend.”
They began dating following Martin’s split from long-term partner Amanda Abbington in 2016 (Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images)‘It’s hard not to feel hurt when they start doing things that don’t involve you, even though you understand it and welcome it because it’s totally natural.’
The former couple met in 2000 while filming Men Only, later working on projects together such as The Debt, The Good Night, The Robinsons, and Sherlock.
Speaking about their split, Amanda shared how they kept their separation secret for six months before it became public.
‘When we broke up nobody knew, we didn’t tell anybody except for a few key people because they had to know, because of the logistics of hotels and stuff,’ she told The Sunday Times.
Amanda revealed that the former couple kept their split secret for six months before it was announced (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage)‘It took six months for it to get out and a lot of that was while we were working on Sherlock… We were professional and we were going to get on and make a show and be civil to each other.”
She added: ‘We still get on really well, we still really both admire each other as actors… he’s a great guy, but we just couldn’t live with each other anymore.’
Since the split, Strictly Come Dancing star Amanda found love with former stunt performer Jonathan Goodwin.
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