Richard Curtis has finally married his partner Emma Freud after spending 33 years with the broadcaster, following two failed engagments.
The 66-year-old Love Actually and Notting Hill maker’s secret wedding was only revealed as Emma, 61, let the news slip at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in Gloucestershire on Saturday while she was interviewing actor Richard E Grant, 66.
Richard was also pictured at the event with a gold ring on his wedding finger, with which he kept fiddling according to guests.
One onlooker told The Sun: ‘Emma confessed she had finally got hitched while interviewing Richard E Grant. She said they’d been married for four weeks.’
They added it was clear she wasn’t meant to have said anything, as she apparently put her finger to her lips and made a ‘funny noise which made everyone laugh’ after mentioning she and Richard were married.
Newlyweds! Richard Curtis has reportedly tied the knot with his partner of 33 years Emma Freud , following two failed proposals (pictured together in 2022)
Couple: The screenwriter, known for his huge romantic comedies including Love Actually and Notting Hill, has been with presenter and director Emma Freud for over three decades and share four children together
The source said: ‘It’s not surprising Emma wanted to talk about it though.
‘They’ve been together for over 30 years so it was about time they got married.’
She was said to have tried to change the subject but it was ‘the talk of the festival’.
Emma has previously twice proposed to Richard twice – but neither attempt was successful as he refused the first time around and slept through the second.
Richard also revealed at the festival he would never include ‘fat’ jokes in his films again and regretted they were not more diverse.
He made the admissions while being quizzed on stage by his daughter Scarlett, 28, about criticisms he has received over the years that the casts of his rom-coms have been almost exclusively white.
Scarlett raised the lack of diversity in his 1999 film ‘Notting Hill’, despite it being set in one of London’s most multicultural areas.
Richard said: ‘I wish I’d been ahead of the curve. I think because I came from a very un-diverse school and bunch of university friends, I think that I hung on to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts.
Romance: According to reports Emma, 61, let slip about her big day while interviewing Richard E Grant at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (pictured in 2018)
Love birds: Movie maker Richard was also at the event and was pictured with a gold band on his wedding finger, which onlookers said he ‘kept fiddling with’ (pictured in 2019)
‘I think I was just stupid and wrong about that.
‘I felt as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t look outwards.’
Ms Zellweger told British Vogue in 2016 how she never understood the fascination with Bridget Jones’s weight.
‘Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I’ve never understood why it matters so much,’ she said. ‘No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role.’ The character is described as having a ‘bottom the size of Brazil’ in the film.
Curtis also spoke of his regret of not having a black character in Notting Hill and ‘not being ahead of the curve’, but that his work was never intentionally meant to cause any harm.
But he did defend himself by saying he had written a gay couple into 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Curtis said he felt ‘stupid and wrong’ for thinking he couldn’t write about those parts because of his ‘very undiverse school’ and ‘bunch of university friends’.
He said: ‘I felt as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t look outwards.’
Curtis was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and had lived in Sweden and the Philippines before moving to Britain aged 11 where he was educated at Harrow. He went on to achieve a first-class Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature at Oxford University.
Making a change: Richard also revealed at the festival he would never include ‘fat’ jokes in his films again and regretted they were not more diverse after being quizzed on the subject by daughter Scarlett (pictured)
Changing times: The weight of Renée Zellweger’s character Bridget Jones was discussed in the 2001 hit film
Last November he admitted that Love Actually’s lack of diversity now makes him feel ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘a bit stupid’ as he looked back for the film’s 20th anniversary.
Speaking to host Diane Sawyer for the ABC special The Laughter and Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, he said the 2003 Christmas classic is ‘out of date’ in some moments.
‘There are things you’d change, but thank god, society is, you know, changing. So, my film is bound, in some moments, to feel, you know, out of date,’ he said.
‘I mean, there are things about the film, you know, the lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.’
Scarlett has previously spoken about the ‘long line of very dodgy men’ in her family with relatives on her mother’s side being marred by controversy and scandal.
Famous footsteps: Scarlett Curtis, 28, this year made her TV writing debut on the second series of Amazon Prime Video’s teen romance The Summer I Turned Pretty
Moving with the times: Curtis previously admitted that 2003 Christmas classic Love Actually’s lack of diversity now makes him feel ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘a bit stupid’
‘There’s a long line of very dodgy men in my family,’ she said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in 2019.
‘That’s why I’m such a feminist, trying to redress the sins of the fathers.’
She told how the family avoided speaking about her ‘sexist’ great-great grandfather Sigmund growing up.
She said: ‘My grandpa [Clement] had a really complicated relationship and we were banned from mentioning Sigmund because he was so obsessed with making it on his own. Mum wasn’t interested. I actively skirted him as a child.’
