A disastrous marriage to the most reviled producer in Hollywood has perhaps overshadowed her achievements as a hugely successful businesswoman, fashion designer and actress.
It all began more than twenty years ago, when Georgina Chapman starred alongside a fresh-faced Danny Dyer in The Business, director Nick Love’s colourful 2005 crime drama about the rise and fall of a drug dealing criminal.
As gangster’s moll Carly, the relatively unknown Chapman, 49 – a sultry brunette with photogenic good looks – would inevitably prove to be one of its high points.
But while her career has taken a rather different turn over recent years, the London born star looks like she hasn’t aged a day since completing work on the ’80’s era drama – unlike many of her co-stars.
Now the successful co-founder of popular clothing brand Marchesa, Chapman spends much of her time focusing on her business, and the highly competitive fashion industry.
Recent TV work includes appearances on American reality shows Project Runway and Project Catwalk: All Stars – serving as judge on the latter for seven consecutive years.
As gangster’s moll Carly, the relatively unknown Georgina Chapman – a sultry brunette with photogenic good looks – would be one of the high points in 2005 drama The Business
Chapman pictured at New York City’s DKMS 2025 gala in October (L) and as gangster’s moll Carly in 2005 crime drama The Business (R)
Alongside fashion designer Keren Craig, she launched passion project Marchesa – now recognised as a high end fashion house – in 2004, the year before she featured in breakthrough film The Business.
The label was subsequently named as one of the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue fashion fund’s top ten finalists in 2015.
That same year the Sunday Times Rich List included Chapman, whose success with the brand earned her an estimated £15 million fortune.
Her creative talent would later feature on one of the biggest stages of all, with Hollywood actress Constance Wu wearing a Chapman designed gown at the 2019 Met Gala.
The daughter of journalist Caroline Wonfor and Brian Chapman, co-owner of coffee company Percol, Chapman’s career began with appearances in a series of TV commercials, among them ads for Head & Shoulders shampoo and Soothers throat lozenges.
She would attend Wimbledon College of Arts, leaving in 2001 with a degree in costume design, before attempting to carve out a career as an actress.
Three years later she would meet Harvey Weinstein, then the most powerful film producer in Hollywood and some 24-years her senior.
The couple would marry in 2007, with Chapman welcoming two children – daughter India, 15, and son Dashiell, 12 – before ending their 11 marriage after more than 100 women accused Weinstein of sexual assault.
Chapman married Harvey Weinstein in 2007 and would welcome two children with him, before filing for divorce in 2021 after more than 100 women accused him of sexual assault
The actress and designer is now involved in a long-term relationship with Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody (pictured together in May)
Speaking in 2018, shortly after separating from the producer, Chapman said she had moments of rage about her then estranged husband’s behavior and cried for the couple’s two children
Speaking in 2018, shortly after separating from the producer, Chapman told Vogue she had moments of rage about her then estranged husband’s behavior and cried for the couple’s two children.
‘There was a part of me that was terribly naive – clearly, so naive,’ she said. ‘I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief!
‘I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be? What are people going to say to them?’ she said in tears.
‘It’s like, they love their dad. They love him. I just can’t bear it for them!’
Asked if she was ever suspicious about Weinstein’s behavior, Chapman said: ‘Absolutely not. Never’.
She added that he frequently traveled for work and she had never obsessed about where he was.
‘That’s what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life.’
Chapman has barely aged a day since starring in Nick Love’s 2005 drama The Business (L-R: cast-members Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Georgina Chapman and Geoff Bell)
Alongside fashion designer Keren Craig, she launched passion project Marchesa – now recognised as a high end fashion house – in 2004, the year before she featured in The Business (pictured in 2007)
Chapman also said she hadn’t offered up any of her dresses to celebrities for the past awards season.
‘We didn’t feel it was appropriate given the situation. All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. It’s a time for mourning, really,’ she said.
‘A lot of people reached out and said, ‘Let me wear something’,’ she added about her loyal followers. Scarlett Johansson wore a Marchesa gown to this year’s Met gala.
Chapman added that she had shut herself off from the world in the first five months after the scandal first broke.
‘I was so humiliated and so broken… that… I, I, I… didn’t think it was respectful to go out,’ she said.
‘I thought, Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on? It’s still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs.’
Chapman and Weinstein reached a divorce agreement in January 2018. The prenuptial agreement she signed reportedly paid her between $15 and $20 million after 11 years of marriage.
She is now involved in a new romance with Adrien Brody after meeting the Oscar winning actor in 2019, while attending an event at the Dorado Beach Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Puerto Rico.
The actress showed off her ageless good looks while attending the DKMS gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York on October 14
A source also revealed to Page Six that the couple are now living together upstate, and during his Oscars speech, Brody appeared to hint that Georgina’s two children call him ‘popsie.’
Weinstein is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020.
It’s been reported that Chapman’s brand Marchesa suffered following her ex-husband’s downfall.
‘Georgina was always the epitome of grace, brilliance, and warmth — even in the most impossible of circumstances,’ the insider added to Page Six.
‘Anyone who knew her back then could see she was focused on her work, her children, and maintaining a level of dignity that frankly, many wouldn’t have been able to manage given the firestorm she was caught in.
Referring to her romance with Brody, the source added: ‘Georgina’s career has had its fair share of troubles too, but they try to champion each other personally, they fill each other with love and try to raise each other up.’
