Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter's Relationship: All About the “Harry Potter” Actress and “Downton Abbey” Star's Romance

The couple married in 1983 and share one daughter

The secret to Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter’s 40-some-year marriage? Prioritizing their life together.

Actors Staunton and Carter have an impressive resume between the two; from Staunton’s role as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown to Carter’s long-running appearance as Mr. Carson in Downton Abbey. Staunton and Carter met on the first day of rehearsal when they were both performing in Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre in London in 1982. To this day, the time spent not working is the most important to the couple.

"Success means working. Success is a really tricky word, and it should be spelled with a very small S. I think it poisons people," Staunton told British Vogue in an interview for the July 2024 issue. "I feel Jim and I have made our lives work as a marriage within this business, and we take our life more seriously than our jobs."

"Of course, we both take [the job] very seriously," she continued. "But you go, 'What’s the most important thing here? That I play another part? Or that we go on a very nice holiday, or that we have that time in the garden, that we have our life?' "

Staunton noted that she’s aware of “how fortunate” they both are to have their careers, but it’s ultimately putting down time first that makes everything work so well.

Here’s everything to know about Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter’s relationship.

They met while performing in a musical

The way the couple met was very fitting, as they were first introduced to one another while on an acting job.

In 1982, Staunton and Carter met each other while in rehearsals for Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre in London. As part of the National Theatre’s 50th anniversary in 2013, the actors attended NT50 to reminisce on their time spent working at the iconic venue.

“It has to be Guys and Dolls for us,” Carter laughed and tapped his wedding ring when asked which National Theatre London production means the most to the pair. “It has to be. We’re married, I don’t know if you know.”

“We met on Jan. 4, 1982, at the read-through of Guys and Dolls,” he added.

They share one daughter

Staunton and Carter share one daughter, Bessie Carter.

Bessie has followed in her mom and dad’s footsteps and is also an actor. She stars as Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton and has previously appeared in the 2017 TV series Beecham House and held a small role in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables.

Although she grew up attending star-studded events, Bessie said that it took her a while to realize that her patents are a big deal.

"I wasn't aware of my parents being famous until my mom did Vera Drake and was nominated for an Oscar," she said during a Substack interview. "That would have been about when I was 11 or 12. Until then, they were just actors. That was their job. It was just normal."

Bessie said that her parents are humble despite their status.

“They are two of the most humble and modest people I’ve ever come across so it has never been assumed in the way that is normal, so it remains, in a way, normal,” she explained. “There has never been a moment where we’ve sat back and bought a second home in Monaco.”

They have worked together in Downton Abbey

The Harry Potter actress and the Shakespeare in Love actor have often appeared on screen alongside one another — perhaps most notably, in Downton Abbey.

Carter has portrayed the stuck-up butler Mr. Carson since the show’s beginning, while his wife joined the franchise during the first movie of the same name in 2019.

"We were across a dining room table from each other, but we never spoke to each other in the first film," he told Town & Country in July 2022.

In the second movie, 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era, the couple share a brief scene that craftily hints at their real-life relationship status. In a hat shop in France, the characters are mistaken for a couple. "It was just a short, cheeky little scene with the French hat seller. It was nice but very quick,” he explained to the outlet.

Carter supports his wife’s work

The two-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner is his wife’s biggest supporter.

Staunton starred in the revival of Hello, Dolly! from July through September 2024 at The London Palladium.

Carter couldn’t have been prouder as he was heard declaring, “That’s my wife!” during one of the performance’s intervals.

“It’s a brilliant production,” he told Deadline in July. “The problem is,” he continued, ”I can’t see anyone else onstage. I can only look at her. I’m sitting there going, ‘Wow!’ ”

They’re patrons of a health research initiative

Breathe Arts Health Research is a charity offering creative programs across a range of art forms “to meet specific clinical and wellbeing needs."

The actor couple are patrons of the initiative, offering their expertise with talks and challenges aiming to inspire.

In one challenge set in October 2020, they challenged people to the Breathe 10 x 10 challenge, where they asked participants to partake in 10 different activities. “It could be for 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 years,” she said in a video promoting the cause.

They don’t have any plans to retire

Staunton and Carter don’t foresee relaxing in their golden years anytime soon.

In a Feb. 20, 2024 interview with Riverstone Living, the couple spoke about their plans — or lack thereof — to retire.

When asked about what the future holds, Carter said it involves more work. “We never really think about retiring, but we are practiced in retirement — I finished a job over 18 months ago. We make sure we have full lives,” he said.

Touching on what the couple likes to do for fun, Staunton explained that they love to garden, walk their dog and go on adventure vacations. The most important thing, however, is that it’s done together.

“We like doing things together. And the rest of that, it's private! We love each other's company, and we feel very lucky to feel that,” the Nanny McPhee actress explained.

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