Yahoo Lifestyle All the details on Keira Knightley's husband, James Righton
You've watched Black Doves, you're patiently waiting for someone to ask you to join their clandestine web of spies, and you're fully committed to the Keira Knightley renaissance. Welcome!
The Pride & Prejudice star is excellent in Netflix's new spy thriller — to the point where she's been nominated for a Golden Globe. And chances are she'll be walking the red carpet with her husband, James Righton. No idea who he is/vaguely assumed Keira was dating a Mr. Darcy lookalike? You clearly have some catching up to do.
He's a famous musician
James played keyboard for the band Klaxons until 2015 and then dropped his first solo album, The Performer, in 2020. His most recent album, Jim, I'm Still Here, was released in 2022 — but he's also scored the soundtracks for several films and has worked with ABBA.
Fun fact: Keira had never listened to James's music before they met. As he put it to the New York Post back in 2017, "She’d never heard of us. Keira was in America when we were having our moment in the sun in the UK, so she was oblivious. But over the years, she came to loads of gigs and loved ‘Surfing the Void.’”
More recently, James talked about the possibility of touring with Klaxons again, telling Rolling Stone, “I can’t imagine being away from my family too, because my kids are at school and the idea of touring now is actually kind of terrifying for me.
"I wouldn’t want to leave what I’ve built because it’s taken a lot. But don’t get me wrong, I still love the guys and it’s nice that people like Charli XCX are referencing us. Now there’s a bit of distance between it ending, It’s like I value it and respect it even more."
He and Keira met through mutual friends
Keira told The Guardian in 2014 that their meet-cute went down at a dinner party, explaining “[We met] through our mate Tim, not Alexa Chung, as people keep telling me. We were very drunk. He’s the sort of person who will be the brightest light in any room, whereas I’m the one who sits in the corner. And he’s much nicer than me.”
They got married in France in May 2013
James and Keira tied the knot in France with just 11 people in attendance (she wore Chanel couture), and then celebrated with a larger group of family and friends during their reception.
James gushed about the wedding to NME (via Cosmopolitan UK), saying, "I just fell in love with someone who happens to be amazing. We had a beautiful wedding and there was a lot of love." He added, “It was the greatest day ever, it was fantastic. We’re still high from it. It was about two weeks ago, it was a big party.”
Meanwhile, Keira told Time Out in 2014 that she was encouraged not to get married by her family, saying, “My parents are deeply hippy. They got married because it was the only way they could get a mortgage at the time. I grew up with them going, ‘Don’t know why you’d ever get married.’ And then we did. It’s nice. It’s been fun. Until it isn’t and then you get divorced! Fingers crossed for the future.”
By the way, Keira re-wore her wedding dress on the red carpet with James a few months after their wedding:
They keep their children fully out of the spotlight
The pair welcomed their first daughter, Edie, on 26th May, 2015, and their second daughter, Delilah, on 13th September, 2019. They keep their kids' private lives private, but here's Keira pregnant at the Oscars!
On that note, they're pretty private in general
Aside from the occasional red carpet appearance, James says he likes to keep things low-key. He told Loud and Quiet in 2016, "Myself and my family, we just ignore it all. I mean, I just sit at home and play with my daughter. I don’t really let it bother me; I don’t let it enter into my world at all. My private life is sacred to me and I’m not that easy talking about it either. It’s this thing that I protect, and my music is this other thing. I don’t want anything to get in its way. At the end of the day I’m just a dad who’s very happy in his family life and who has a job – it’s a very weird job, not like a normal one–but then I’ve never known any different. It’s normal to me now."
He added re: the spotlight, "All of that stuff means nothing, though. I mean, firstly I’m just being a supportive husband who supports what his wife does. But honestly, that’s way more normal and sedate than anything we got up to as Klaxons."
They're still going strong 11 years into marriage
As Keira told The Times while promoting Black Doves, “We really annoy each other. But, f–k, do we laugh," adding, “If James comes [to the parties], they’re fun. James believes it is his right to have a good time and he will create it anywhere he goes. Unless I’m really drunk, and you can’t be if you’re at one of those events, I find it quite intense and quite difficult. James manages to break formality with people and I can’t do that.”
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