Aaron Taylor-Johnson Dines in Rome, Eyes Bond Role

It was a case of when in Rome on Monday evening as Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson ventured out for a romantic dinner date in the Italian capital.

The couple enjoyed an intimate meal at upmarket trattoria Dal Toscano, a restaurant noted for its rich pasta dishes, signature steaks and broad range of Tuscan dishes. 

Idling on Via Germanico later that night they were seen waiting for their driver, with film director Sam, 59, appearing to check his progress on her mobile phone. 

Standing alongside his wife, Aaron, 35 - widely tipped to replace as the next  - silently peered over her shoulder.

The pair first met 18 years ago, when Aaron was cast as a young in Nowhere Boy, Sam's 2009 biopic about the late legend. 

A year after meeting, the couple announced their engagement, marrying at Somerset's Grade II listed Babington House in 2012. They went on to welcome two daughters together; Wylda, 15, and Romy, 14. 

While their first film collaboration was a success, the couple's only other collaboration was a 2019 film adaptation of James Frey's divisive novel A Million Little Pieces - directed by Sam and starring Aaron as its troubled central character. 

Their family also includes Sam's eldest daughters Angelica, 27, and Jessie, 18, whom she shares with ex-husband Jay Jopling.

Both Sam and Aaron are extremely private and keep their youngest children firmly out of the spotlight, with the actor making rare comments about her personal life during an interview with Harper's Bazaar.

He explained: 'We live behind walls. Literally, figuratively, and deliberately. You'll never see our children or any of our most personal moments on social media or in the press.

'We have our professional lives and our life together, and we keep them apart.'

In 2025, Sam said she couldn't believe the continued 'fascination' fans have with their age gap marriage.

Speaking to the BBC, she said that the initial interest in their relationship was 'intense' because 'people want to understand things when they can't'.

Sam told Radio 4's This Cultural Life: 'I guess that interest was more when we got together, which was now 14 years – at the beginning, was quite intense.

'And that sort of fascination, because he's younger than me, which you know, we couldn't really fathom the fascination. But I guess it's sort of gone away a little bit.

'Mostly when I'm doing press and things like this it sort of resurges a little bit. But yeah, I guess people want to understand things when they can't.

'They want to pick up art when they can't fathom what a certain love story that doesn't fit in a box is.'