Dominic West kisses wife after shock snaps with Lily James

Dominic West and his wife Catherine FitzGerald have made a show of union following claims the actor had been unfaithful with Lily James.

Pictures emerged of The Affair star, 50, and Downton Abbey actress James, 31, looking very close while in Rome together over the weekend, with reports the snaps left his wife and mother of his four children ‘devastated’.

That’s not what they told the cameras today, however, with the duo putting on a united show for photographers outside their home in Wiltshire, as Dominic returned from his sun-soaked Italian stay.

The pair posed for the gathered press, holding hands and kissing.

“I just want to say our marriage is strong and we are very much still together,” the actor told reporters.

The sentiment was reiterated on a note pinned to the gate.

“Our marriage is strong and we are very much still together. Thank you,” the note, signed by West and his wife read.

Dominic’s ‘strong’ marriage to Catherine

The couple met as students at Trinity College Dublin. They rekindled their romance several years later and have four children together – daughters Dora, 14, and Christabel, seven, and sons Senan, 12 and Francis, 11.

They married in 2010 and split their time between their homes in England and FitzGerald’s family home Glin Castle in Ireland.

The landscape gardener is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat whose father was the last Knight of Glin.

She was previously married to Viscount Lambton between 1995 and 2002.

West has a 22-year-old daughter Martha with ex-girlfriend Polly Astor, daughter of the politician Michael Astor.

Dominic and Lily James canoodle in Rome

The passionate public display from Dominic and Catherine comes after he was spotted canoodling on the streets of Rome with co-star, Downton Abbey’s Lily James in jaw-dropping images published on Monday by The Daily Mail.

The pair had been shooting the upcoming BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s romance novel The Pursuit Of Love, with their very friendly-looking Italian getaway shocking fans and family alike.

Filming had begun in the spring but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

Yesterday, a source named only as a ‘friend’ of Dominic’s wife reported she was ‘devastated’ by the images.

Cinderella star Lily has been in an on-off relationship with 37-year-old Doctor Who star Matt Smith for the past five years.

It was recently reported they had split for good after attempting to rekindle their relationship during lockdown.

Lily and Dominic’s friendship goes further back than a new series however, the pair also starred on stage in Othello together at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in 2011.

The damning photos of the pair seated outside a restaurant show West stroking James’s hair and holding her shoulder as he leans in and apparently nestles his face in her neck.

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