I first heard that Gillian Anderson had been dating The Crown creator, Peter Morgan, when she was doing press for the show’s fourth season last month. She of course plays Margaret Thatcher, and she’s phenomenal in the role. She’s said that she and Peter don’t discuss her performance, that they don’t talk about work, and that they have boundaries around their work and personal lives. Unfortunately they’ve split after about four and a half years together. The Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye has an exclusive about it, writing that he heard it was a logistics issue for them due to their work schedules and children. Gillian has a young adult daughter, Piper, 26, from her first marriage to X-Files art director, Clyde Klotz, and two sons, Oscar, 14, and Felix, 12, from her relationship with Mark Griffiths. Peter has five children with his ex, Princess Anna Carolina Schwarzenberg (she’s Austrian nobility). They separated in 2014 but I can’t find confirmation that they’ve divorced at all. Gillian said earlier this year that she and Peter don’t live together by choice. Here’s that report on their breakup from The DM:
Gillian Anderson, 52, and her writer partner Peter Morgan, 57, who worked together on the latest season of The Crown, have split amicably after four years together…
They were supportive of each other’s careers. Morgan was often seen at Anderson’s first nights, and they would frequently be spotted together on the awards season circuit in Los Angeles and London.
But I’ve heard that the relationship has run its course — not helped by various work commitments and family logistics (each has children from past relationships) — though they remain great friends.
I approached representatives for both Anderson and Morgan this week, but they declined to comment.
The rest of the article focuses on their careers. The reasoning for the split makes me think this report is somewhat official. Couples always say that their breakups are amicable and that it was work and scheduling. The next seasons of The Crown will have PMs John Major and Tony Blair. I’m assuming that Gillian and Peter won’t need to work together anymore. I buy that they couldn’t make it work, especially if they’re not living together. They have young adult children and it’s got to be so much stress to live with them or even visit with them and have an outside relationship too. There are just too many variables now and if even one child is out socializing it’s dangerous. I would like to learn more about this but they’re British and Gillian isn’t messy about her personal life.
I really liked them together! That’s all I’ve got.
Aw, that’s too bad. I really liked them together.
“ The next season of The Crown, season five which will be its last”
Actually Peter Morgan has announced it’s getting a 6th season after all! As for the relationship ending, maybe it was after they worked together? Some celebrity relationships do end after that.
I will fix that, thank you!
A 6th season?! Any chance it would cover the Sussexes?
I think I read that he is not going to cover William and Harry’s lives at all, other than the brief glimpses like we have already seen. I can’t remember where I read that though.
I really hope it doesn’t. I feel like meghans and Harry’s story can only be told retrospectively. Plus I don’t want to see Willie and Kate’s perfect fairytale romance play out on screen. I think it should end at the deaths or the queen mum and Margaret in 2002, which was also the queens golden jubilee year.
Unlikely. It’s going up to 2003 maybe 2005 and that’s it. Peter Morgan has said he’s not going to be writing the Sussex story
It will mostly just cover the time around Princess Diana’s death since It’ll be during Tony Blair’s time as PM. Each season pretty much revolves around the timeline of the PM’s.
Thanks to a commentator on here, I have been listening to the official podcast on Spotify and when they talk about the storylines, Morgan (and a few others) make it point to remind the viewer that the storyline always has to go back to the Queen no matter what.
Some things just run their course. At least it’s amicable. What I noticed and love is that her sons are named Oscar and Felix.
I guess I am in the minority,i found her Thatcher portrayal laughable. The way she spoke was so grating. I even checked some old Thatcher footage ,she did not speak like that.
Same here! I like her in general, but her portrayal of Thatcher was off. Like caricature of the character, not a character. Overacting all the time.
same here
Let me also join your minority as I found it to be really bad. I generally love her in other roles but her portrayal here was so forced.
I thought it cringeingly (is this a word ?) bad. Like a bad caricature. But loved her in Sex Education.
Me too. It was almost a parody of Thatcher. It seemed all external (the hair, the voice), not internal.
You are not alone on this. I do not miss the opportunity to let people know I hated her Tharcher. There is nothing phenomenal about it. The only phenomenal thing about it is that probably the fact that the creators did not stop that mess. Or maybe that explains the split, maybe he did tell her what he really thought qlabout her performance. Overacting is what it was.
I saw this headline and went “Ohhhhhh that makes sense”
Cause yeah I definitely didn’t love her Margaret Thatcher.
I literally just had to watch old footage of Thatcher since I was a small child for much of her tenure, and I think Anderson nailed her. It’s not meant to be a documentary and, artistically speaking, she nailed the comparatively wheezing speed and accent of her.
I agree – I absolutely HATED her as Thatcher!!!!
WORD.
Yes the voice was hella annoying.
Did not like it at all. It’s like she was in permanent robot speech mode. No world leader speaks like that at all times, lol.
I also disliked her portrayal of Thatcher…intensely. I resorted to muting the tv & reading closed caps so I didn’t have to hear her voice.
I generally like Anderson, she’s a good actor and stunningly beautiful.
Worst Thatcher ever. Like an SNL skit version of Thatcher.
Peter convinced her to take a second look at the script for Sex Education, so I’ll forever appreciate him for that.
I adore her. I also notice in the photos that she has that too-light -of -a -concealer problem that gives you white under eye lines. I think I love her even more now.
It might be the flashback from her setting powder, too. I wish all makeup looked as good in photos as it did in person and vice versa!
Always loved her. I liked her in the Edith Wharton period piece, House of Mirth. Underrated as an actor and unjustly overshadowed by David Duchovney back in the day (and I believe underpaid).
I am way behind on the Crown, but I’ve always like Gillian.
Sounds like they just grew apart, especially if they weren’t living together during the pandemic.
I’ve always loved Gillian Anderson so I’m completely ignoring whatever *that* was as Thatcher and instead insisting once again that SOMEONE CAST GILLIAN ANDERSON AS BOND, YOU COWARDS!!!
YES!! That could make up for it right there.
I always thought she was American, and I was so surprised to hear her speaking in a British accent in an interview on Fresh Air.
I think she is American. She was born in the States and lived in England as a kid but as a teen the family moved back to the States and she lived in Michigan. She is bidialectal meaning she can easily slip into an American or British accent. She always felt more at home in England so she is an honorary British but I’m not sure if her parents are originally from England, I don’t think they are.
I think that’s right. She is American, but with a lot of British influence/experience. She was actually intended to play Elizabeth McGovern’s role in “Downton Abbey” (the American-Born Countess) but for whatever reason that didn’t happen. I’m glad since I ended up hating that show, but that’s a different story. I liked her Thatcher. It wasn’t perfect, but I liked it. And I love her in Sex Ed.
Oh wow! That’s too bad, I just learned they were together a few weeks ago and I realized that’s how she ended up on The Crown. I’m sure juggling so many kids between them is hard but a lot of relationships have died during the pandemic. However I’m not super surprised either. Gillian has always been a free-spirit and I don’t think she likes to be tied down. I think she gets bored easily and her career comes first which I admire.
There are peeps who want to see her end up with David Duchovny but that’s on screen chemistry. It’s not real life.
The X-Files was almost 20 years ago. People need to move on. Gillian did!
With the way she lived separately from Peter Morgan, I always got the sense that she enjoys her independence and isn’t looking to settle down with a man. Now that she’s single, I’d like to see her hook up with a hot younger man. (Pretty sure Skarsgard is single…)
I cringed every time she spoke or did that caricature thing with her mouth, spreading it all over her face. I watched old footage of Thatcher and yes, Gillian’s performance was hammy AF. Watch the subtlety Meryl Streep brings to the role in Iron Lady.
One of the main reasons I avoid biopics about 20th- and 21st-century figures is because we have them on video and their mannerisms etc are known to us. And ergo made parodic by most actors. Yeah, I’m with you. (Et tu, Gillian?)
(You can’t effin pay me to watch that Judy thing, for example.)
Godwina, I haven’t seen it either for the same reasons you noted. If an actor portrays a figure on screen with whom we are all familiar (eg Freddie Mercury), he or she is all but guaranteed an Oscar for what is mostly mimicry. I’m more impressed with an actor who has created a character from his or her imagination. I would make an exception for say Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of Lincoln because we have never seen Lincoln walk or heard him speak. We have descriptions but that’s all.
I saw “Judy” and all I could see was Renee Zellweger playing her the same way she plays all her other roles. It was so distracting. Her eyes started to annoy me after a while, all the squinting.
I adore GA (and loathe Thatcher) but I was kinda not in love with her performance. I think the casting could have been better there.
Awww she’s so talented! I hope she’s happy 💚 I agree with comment that says Gillian wound make a great Bond
Gillian Anderson is not British. She’s from Chicago. Her British accent in interviews is better than madonnas but about as authentic.
Disagree as a Brit…even Brits (will look for the reference) have commented on how seamless her accent is. They say if you learn an accent before a certain age the phonemes get wired into your brain … so her early years in the UK, the frequent visits subsequently and now this long stretch living there must have contributed. She’s been on several talk shows in the UK that you can look up easily.