James Norton is left heartbroken as he ends his six-year relationship with fiancé Imogen Poots.

He is one of the most sought-after leading men – and known for being a lovely guy off screen, too.

However friends say Happy Valley star James Norton is quietly nursing heartbreak after splitting from fiancé Imogen Poots.

I’m told the couple, who shared a home in East London, parted ways before Christmas after ‘growing apart’.

Both have been working almost constantly, with James, 38, filming the Bob Marley biopic One Love which premiered in Los Angeles and London this week.

He plays Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.

IHappy Valley star James Norton is quietly nursing heartbreak after splitting from fiancé Imogen Poots. Imogen was last seen with James in March 2023

IHappy Valley star James Norton is quietly nursing heartbreak after splitting from fiancé Imogen Poots. Imogen was last seen with James in March 2023

Both have been working almost constantly, with James, 38, filming the Bob Marley biopic One Love which premiered in Los Angeles and London this week

Both have been working almost constantly, with James, 38, filming the Bob Marley biopic One Love which premiered in Los Angeles and London this week

Imogen, 34, spent time in New Mexico in 2022 making the drama Outer Range with James Brolin and is now on set in Northamptonshire making Hedda, a new adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

In an interview last year to promote the Happy Valley finale he said of his busy acting life: ‘It comes as a cost because you don’t see each other a lot, but we are willing to pay that for the benefit of having someone in your life close to you who gets it, who is forgiving, who will give up their Sunday to do an annoying self-tape (audition.)’

They got together after meeting during a run of the play Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse in 2017 and got engaged in February 2022.

Imogen was last seen with James after the opening night of A Little Life, an adaptation of the Hanya Yanagihara novel, in March 2023.

However there has been no sign of her at any of the One Love premieres, in Jamaica, LA or London. 

The pair also appear to have unfollowed each other on social media, and Imogen is not among those liking any of Norton’s recent Instagram posts about the film.

Spokesmen for Imogen and James did not return requests for comment this week.

James, who went to Ampleforth College before reading Theology at Cambridge, has recently completed Joy, a Netflix film about the first ‘test tube baby’ Louise Brown.

He is now making Playing Nice, a four part ITV drama about parents who discover that their children were accidentally switched at birth. James is an executive producer of that show via his own company, Rabbit Track Productions.

The pair also appear to have unfollowed each other on social media, and Imogen is not among those liking any of Norton's recent Instagram posts about the film

James isn't following Imogen on Instagram

The pair also appear to have unfollowed each other on social media, and Imogen is not among those liking any of Norton’s recent Instagram posts about the film

In an interview last year to promote the Happy Valley finale he said of his busy acting life: 'It comes as a cost because you don't see each other a lot' (James pictured)

In an interview last year to promote the Happy Valley finale he said of his busy acting life: ‘It comes as a cost because you don’t see each other a lot’ (James pictured)

Imogen and James met when they starred alongside each other in Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse during the summer of 2017

Imogen and James met when they starred alongside each other in Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse during the summer of 2017

They got engaged in February 2022 (pictured together in January 2020)

They got engaged in February 2022 (pictured together in January 2020) 

Of the Happy Valley finale, which saw escaped prisoner Tommy Lee Royce in a final confrontation with Sgt Catherine Cawood, played by Sarah Lancashire, he said: ‘That scene with Sarah was one of the most special scenes I’ve ever shot. The whole set was quiet, like being in a church. 

‘She was spectacular and I felt I was going good work. Usually I go off set and I’m like: ‘Oh no, I ****ed it up! It’s awful! I hate myself. Life’s rubbish!’

In the closing scenes of Happy Valley, Cawood rang her sister Clare and told her that she had had a final encounter with Tommy. ‘We’ve had another bit of a tussle. I won, obviously. I think I might have singed one of your crocheted blankets.’

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