The actress taking over the role ofQueen Elizabeth‘s younger sister inThe Crownseason 3 will portray Princess Margaret as her marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones deteriorated — and a romance with Roddy Llewellyn, a gardener-turned-unsuccessful pop star 17 years her junior, blossomed.
Off-screen, 53-year-old Bonham Carter is dating 32-year-old writer Rye Dag Holmboe — mirroring Princess Margaret’s relationship age gap.
Speaking toThe Times, the Oscar nominee said that her real-life romance didn’t give her any insight to playing Margaret.
“It’s strange, though,” Bonham Carter said. “It was odd timing that I seem to have a similar age gap as her, but I think it would have happened whether I was playing her or not.”
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The actress had no concerns about the age difference with her boyfriend — and noted there are perks to dating an older woman.
“Everybody ages at a different rate,” she said. “My boyfriend is unbelievably mature. He’s an old soul in a young body, what more could I want? People are slightly frightened of older women, but he isn’t. Women can be very powerful when they’re older. Why can’t we be sexually and romantically attractive just when our eggs are expired? Actually it’s much more fun because we’re so freed of the terror, there is no consequence, it’s all just for fun.”
Roddy Llewellyn and Princess Margaret.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty
Bonham Carter and Harry Treadaway, who plays Llewellyn on the Netflix hit, met with Princess Margaret’s eight-year partner, now 72.
Bonham Carter also sees similarities between Princess Margaret and Llewellyn’s relationship with Prince Harry andMeghan Markle‘s current situation.
“There was something historic in the way the press laid into Margaret and Roddy. That had never happened,” she observed. “On the whole, up ’til then the royal family had its protection, a gentleman’s agreement with the press. But something happened there.”
source: people.com
