A Spy Among Friends star Damian Lewis is finally moving on after Peaky Blinder’s Helen McRory’s death

Damian Lewis is starring in A Spy Among Friends - his first work project since his wife’s death
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Actor Damian Lewis, 51, of A Spy Among Friends fame was married to Peaky Blinders star Helen McRory for 14 years before the latter died prematurely. McCrory played leading lady Aunt Polly in the BBC period drama show set in Birmingham. Lewis is starring in a new show - A Spy Among Friends based on the eponymous book by Ben Macintyre, Associate Editor on The Times.

They fell in love while working together. They were performing in Five Gold Rings at London’s Almeida Theatre in 2003 when they met. Helen was attracted to Damian because he made her laugh, and did that throughout their marriage.

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"Of course, everyone in life wants someone to love and be loved by, but I think I was always just engrossed and involved in work. And no, the timing was pure fluke, pure chance, it always is, isn’t it?" she told Radio Times in 2017.

They got married in 2007 in the Kensington and Chelsea registry office. Their honeymoon lasted an evening but she called it “lovely”.

"We got married in the Kensington and Chelsea registry office, then walked down the King’s Road and had lunch in a nice restaurant around the corner with 11 people. A very romantic day," she said, according to Hello!

Like any other couple they expected to be together for a long time, but sadly, McRory lost the battle to cancer and passed away in 2021. Lewis and McRory share two children, Manon, 16, and Gulliver, 15.

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Since then, Lewis has opened up about his late wife and the toll her disease took on him.

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory  (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory  (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

On Helen

Lewis wrote in The Sunday Times: “Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress. She was a people person, sure. ‘I’m much more interested in who I’m with than where I am,’ she would say, and innately wanted to share. But she also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things out into the world to make it better, to make people feel better."

He added that the Harry Potter star always "spread happiness". Damian said: “Even when dying in her last few days, when talking to our wonderful carers, she repeatedly said, ‘thank you so much’ in her half delirious state."

Helen McRory and Damian Lewis (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)Helen McRory and Damian Lewis (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Helen McRory and Damian Lewis (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

On grief

The Homeland actor said he felt exhausted for months after McRory died.

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“For four or five months, you’re physically drained. Helen was ill for four and a half years. They say that the first day of diagnosis of an illness that could be terminal is the first day of your grief,” he told The Guardian.

The sense of sadness was with him even when she was alive. “You are in a state of semi-grief while the person is still alive because there is always the sense that something might go wrong at any point,” he said.

He is making an album inspired by his late wife now as his grief has taken him to this new direction. “When you’ve been married to someone and they die prematurely, you’re left careering in a different direction,” he added.

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

On moving on

The actor has confirmed that he is dating again and said he is in a relationship with The Kills singer, Alison Mosshart. They were seen at a fundraising event for the UK’s National Gallery and later at Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer party in 2022, according to Vanity Fair.

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Lewis is starring in a mini series - A Spy Among Friends - with Guy Pearce on new streaming service ITVX. The show is set in 1963 England and Lewis plays an MI6 intelligence officer who learns that his close friend and colleague, Kim Philby (Pearce) is a double agent for the Soviet Union. This is his first acting project since his last appearance in Billions in 2021.

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