After 22 years of marriage, actor Colin Firth has split from his wife Livia almost two years after it was revealed that she had an affair with her childhood friend. The 59-year-old actor confirmed the news in a statement today.
Colin Firth and Livia have been married for 22 years and they have two teenage sons, Luca and Matteo.
It has been reported that Colin Firth and Livia will maintain a ‘close friendship.’
The couple will remain ‘united in their love for their children’ despite breaking up.
A representative for the couple released a statement saying that Colin and Livia Firth have separated and that they maintain a close friendship while remaining united in their love for their children.
The couple asks for privacy and there will be no further comment.
In March last year, it was alleged that Livia had a year-long affair with Italian journalist Marco Brancaccia which led to the split.
A police investigation was made claiming that Livia’s childhood friend Brancaccia was harassing her with a frightening barrage of messages.
In March 2018 Firth confronted his wife over a ‘heartbreaking and malicious’ email from her ex-lover.
Revelations ‘designed to wound’ the King’s Speech star was found in the message, but Firth maintained a dignified silence over the affair.
Firth’s friend shared that Marco basically told Colin everything he had been doing with Livia for a year, and it was a detailed diatribe, humiliating Colin and was designed with no other motive than to wound.
The friend added that Marco described intimate meetings that would devastate any husband – no matter what the state of their marriage. He also did it with a misguided and hopeless belief that he could destabilise the efforts being made by Colin and Livia to sort things out.
The friend also continued saying that Colin presented it to his wife in what must have been a very difficult confrontation. Colin is the man that he is and has maintained his dignity throughout.
Livia also received phone calls, besides the email to Firth and she was living in terror as she believed she was being followed.
Emails containing pictures of Livia were sent to her 57-year-old husband after the pair reunited.
According to Daily Mail, Brancaccia, 55 told The Times that Livia had invented the claims to cover up their affair which happened between 2015 and 2016.
A representative for Livia and Colin said that the couple privately made the decision to separate a few years ago. Livia briefly became involved with former friend Brancaccia during that time but after that the Firths have since reunited.
Following that Brancaccia started harassing Livia over several months much of which is documented. The Firths have never had any desire to make the matter public.
Firth shares a son with former partner Meg Tilly who is his co-star in the film Valmont.
Firth met Guiggioli on the set of BBC Drama Nostromo after splitting from Tilly and he married Guiggioli a year later in Tuscany, Italy.
The couple has a home in Chiswick, London, and Umbria, Italy. They are often spotted together at red carpet events.
It was revealed in 2017 that Firth  applied for dual UK and Italian citizenship following the footsteps of his children while Livia applied for a British passport.
Livia is a creative director, co-founder and environmental activist of Eco-Age, a sustainable consultancy firm.
Livia is also the founding member of singer Annie Lennox’s women’s advocacy group The Circle, and has won the UN Leader of Change Award and the Rainforest Alliance Award for Outstanding Achievement in sustainability.
Colin Firth is known for playing a number of famously stiff-upper-lipped English figures on the big screen, including Bridget Jones’s Mark Darcy, Love Actually’s Jamie, and King George VI in The King’s Speech. /TISG