Keira Knightley’s husband was ‘smug’ about being Covid-asymptomatic

Keira Knightley and husband James Righton take a stroll in a park in London

Months ago, Keira Knightley described her experiences in lockdown, in London with her husband James Righton and their two kids. Apparently, Righton is some kind of health nut and he put their family on a root-vegetable diet during the pandemic because he claimed that would be better for their immune systems? The way Keira described it, she made James sound “a bit mad,” as the Brits would say. Well, Keira gave an interview to the Telegraph’s Stella Magazine recently to promote her new movie Silent Night. The interview was conducted while she and her family were in quarantine because they all caught Covid. Righton apparently had some more thoughts about what HE did right.

Keira Knightley is recovering from COVID-19. The two-time Academy Award nominee, 36, revealed during an interview with The Telegraph’s Stella magazine that she and her family are currently in quarantine after contracting breakthrough coronavirus. “I’ve got COVID and I’m feeling pretty rubbish,” Knightley said.

She explained that her daughters Edie, 6, and Delilah, 2, are recovering quicker than she is, while her husband James Righton, 38, is asymptomatic. “[He is] being very smug about it — he is convinced it’s because he’s one of those cold-water swimmers and I’m not,” the actress said. Knightley’s rep tells PEOPLE that both she and Righton were fully vaccinated, and they’ve completed their required 10-day quarantine.

The British actress also opened up about the surreal experience of filming her new comedy-horror movie Silent Night, set during Christmas on the eve of an environmental apocalypse. Filming kicked off in the U.K. in February 2020, a month before the pandemic began.

“We were filming scenes about the shops running out of food at the same time as the news was becoming full of stories that all of the toilet paper had gone,” she recounted. “It was incredibly strange for everyone. I think it should come with a warning, because now everybody is coming to the film with a lived experience, hopefully not as horrific as this one, but it has suddenly become a lot more raw.”

[From People]

Well, I’m glad that Keira and James are vaccinated and she’s lucky that everyone is doing okay, herself included. But, again, this is bonkers: “[He is] being very smug about it — he is convinced it’s because he’s one of those cold-water swimmers and I’m not.” So James Righton thinks a root-vegetable diet will help with Covid-immunity AND he swims in cold water and he probably thinks that’s why he’s asymptomatic with Covid? Yiiikes.

Misbehaviour World Premiere

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instar.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

22 Responses to “Keira Knightley’s husband was ‘smug’ about being Covid-asymptomatic”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. E says:

    This dude has a very punchable face.

  2. Bendy Windy says:

    To be fair, it says he put them on it to boost their immune systems, not so they wouldn’t get COVID. A lot of people do that with diets or essential oils and stuff. It’s not my cup of tea, but let’s not pretend he said they wouldn’t get COVID if they ate turnips and ginger.

    The cold-water swimming thing is weird, though.

    • detritus says:

      This isn’t a doctor approved diet change, it provides less nutrients than a rounded diet and is most likely lacking some essential amino acids.

      The cold water swims could have a hormetic response in some but still be harmful for another.

      My generous read is that he’s susceptible to confirmation bias and hopefully this is wacky jokes, but the diet thing is concerning.

  3. Jade says:

    As long as people like him still get the vaccine it’s harmless, albeit grating for people around him maybe? It’s when they go into Aaron Rodgers territory that it gets dangerous.

  4. Haley says:

    I think it was just some jesting between spouses.
    I saw the trailer for “Silent Night” it looks a bit wild but I think it could be quite funny.

  5. Green Desert says:

    Hehe I think there’s some truth to what she’s saying, but I think Keira’s also just being a bit cheeky. Her husband is probably into science AND things like cold water swimming and, like, lots of supplements.

  6. Woke says:

    I don’t have a problem with it as long as they vaccinated and don’t try to recommend/sell this lifestyle/type of thinking to other people.

  7. dlc says:

    He sounds fun….

  8. GoldenMom says:

    Good god, this kind of ‘smug’ can only be tempered by humour, otherwise it becomes intolerable in a big hurry. ‘Funny’ how a certain kind of person genuinely thinks they are faster/better/smarter…Covid is exposing these people so they can be avoided….married to one that ‘joked’ like this for far too long.

    And I hope Keira gets well soon!! Don’t wish this on anyone…

  9. MangoAngelesque says:

    I think this might be a case of “funny banter between spouses” that translates weirdly to outsiders. Like, she’s teased him for ages about being into the cold-water swimming, and now he’s said something cheeky about “I guess my crazy swimming DOES do a body good” which made her roll her eyes and thwack his arm and laugh at him.

    But it sounds looney-toons to everyone coming in cold 🤷‍♀️

    Y husband and I are like that with random things, and to other people it would probably sound terribly out of place, but it’s just goofing to us.

    • Ohlizbennet says:

      I like Keira, her movies are all lovely but honestly her husband gives me odd vibes. She’s talked about how hard it is, even when rich like she is, to have to deal with childcare. And I’m not putting her down, but her husband has (seemingly) not been working for a couple years (which is fine, nothing against her being the bread winner). So she talked about having to hire a nanny and it was like, well why deal with the struggle to hire someone to take care of your kid when dad is right there? Now I acknowledge perhaps it was just an assumption in my head he hasn’t been working based off a news release years ago that said his hadn’t much income that year specifically due to no longer working with his band. But perhaps maybe he was doing other things, and if so I’d fully admit I jumped the gun. But then recently in one of her interviews, she apparently said her husband was going to start working next year and she would as a result take the time off to take off their kids, and so now I’m wondering why he couldn’t offer the same courtesy to her? I hope it’s a choice, but why is it that when she has to work, it’s lucky she can afford childcare but when her husband works, she needs to take time off to care for their children?

      Perhaps I’m wrong, but these smug comments, which may just be odd banter, added to my strange vibes don’t help fix my impression of him.

  10. Normades says:

    I bet he wasn’t vaxed and that’s why he’s so smug. Sounds like one of those new age anti vaxxers to me.

  11. Snazzy says:

    I’m one of those cold water swimming nuts too …. honestly it does make me feel a lot better in general, much healthier and stronger. My doctor also encourages it as she says it helps with my depression (she’s right, it really does). But I’m still fully vaxxed – no way do I believe swimming in cold water will protect me from a deadly virus

    • sally says:

      Can confirm the depression bit! We do cold water dips/swims around here for health and immunity reasons too, no idea if they really work, but they do improve my mental state.

  12. Monica says:

    Poor Keira—eating all those rutabagas and she still got Covid!

  13. candy says:

    The town where I went to college had a freezing cold pool, it was spring fed. I always felt so amazing afterwards and it always made my skin so soft. But I don’t think it helps immunity anymore than any other form of exercise.

    The minute a man has any kind of weird theories, I back away. I’m just too traumatized from all the anti-vaxers etc.

  14. Whitecat says:

    Or just get vaccinated.
    I also got Covid but I’m asymptomatic. That’s cause I took all 3 shots of my vaccine.