Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery engaged to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's brother after heartache

 

Michelle Dockery, best known for portraying Lady Mary Crawley in ITV’s Downton Abbey, has found love again and is set to wed Jasper Waller-Bridge. The couple’s happy news was announced in The Times today.

Michelle, 40, met the younger brother of Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge through friends back in 2019.

Jasper, 34, works in film and TV as a producer and previously had a stint in music management, as he represented former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson.

The pair first went public together at the Rome Film Festival, according to The Independent.

An announcement published in the Times reads: “The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.”

READ MORE: Piers Morgan shut down by Queen with epic quip

This is not the first time Michelle has been engaged, as the actress tragically suffered the loss of her first fiancé John Dineen to a rare form of cancer six years ago.

John died at the age of 34 in 2015 and Michelle has since shared that she “considers herself a widow”. 

Two years on from her fiancé’s death, she told the Guardian: “I don’t have the vocabulary to describe what it felt like.

“And what it still feels like. It is … sorry, give me a minute. I’ve never been more committed to anything in my life than to him.

Jasper, meanwhile, is the youngest of three siblings with his oldest sister Isobel Waller-Bridge working as a composer. 

Isobel, 37, has produced some impressive scores over the years, including music for Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and for the 2020 film Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy.

Middle sibling Phoebe, 36, has created some of the BBC’s most successful shows in recent years, including cat and mouse spy thriller Killing Eve, as well as self-fronted dramedy Fleabag.   

Phoebe was married to Irish presenter and documentary filmmaker Conor Woodman, 47, between 2014 and 2017 before they filed for divorce, and has since been dating playwright Martin McDonagh, 51.

Downton Abbey: A New Era will be a sequel to the 2019 film Downton Abbey, which caught up with the beloved TV characters after the ITV show had finished. 

Both films were written by series creator Julian Fellowes, and feature most of the programme’s original cast. 

My Week with Marilyn director Simon Curtis will be directing the sequel, replacing director of the first film Michael Engler.

The much-anticipated sequel is scheduled for release on March 18, 2022.

source: express.co.uk