Charles Dance reveals marriage broke up after ‘succumbing to temptation’

To a certain generation of film buffs, he will always be “the thinking woman’s crumpet”. Now Charles Dance has admitted there may be more than a touch of truth to that description.

The veteran actor has confessed that his marriage to Joanna Haythorn ended after he “succumbed to some temptations”.

Dance, who has starred in White Mischief, Game of Thrones and The Crown, said he eventually had to “come clean”, leading to the couple divorcing in 2004, after a marriage lasting 34 years.

Speaking to Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast, he said: “For the most part it was a wonderful marriage, but then, unfortunately, I succumbed to some temptations along the way and the marriage ended because of my behaviour really.”

“I eventually had to come clean,” he added. “Because we were living in Somerset, in this enormous place, and Jo had her study at one end and I had mine at the other end, and we became a bit like George and Martha (in the play) Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? really after a while.

Eventually I came back and I thought, ‘really, we have to have [a] very serious conversation’. And I had to come clean and it came as a shock to Jo, bless her.”

Dance – who for the past three years has been in a relationship with Alessandra Masi, the Italian actor, who at 54 is 22 years his junior – said he never thought of himself as attractive, for all his reputation.

“I don’t want to be seen to be scrabbling around for excuses. I never thought of myself as attractive. I really didn’t…” he told Brandreth.

“[It] wasn’t until I did The Jewel In The Crown years later and people talked about me as being ‘the thinking woman’s crumpet’.

“I always felt very grateful if girls behaved as if they were attracted to me. But there is no justification for it, you know.

“In our business, Gyles, temptation is often presented and you have to be pretty together and balanced, and have not a particularly powerful libido to not succumb to that.

“So, the marriage came to an end – huge regret. But after about 18 months, Jo and I, thankfully, became the best of friends, and we remain so, thank God.

“She had a flat not very far away from where I live and we saw each other quite frequently, and so it kind of all turned out all right in the end.”

Asked if he would do anything differently now, Dance said: “Of course. Oh my goodness, the benefit of hindsight.

“It took me a long time to learn the law of cause and effect.”