Emma Thompson was ‘utterly blind’ to Kenneth Branagh’s affair with Helena Bonham Carter

Emma Thompson has revealed how she felt when she found out about her then-husband's infidelity. Photo / Getty Images

Dame Emma Thompson has made a heartbreaking confession about the moment she found out about her ex-husband’s affair.

The 63-year-old actress who was married to Sir Kenneth Branagh said she felt “unlovable” when she found out about her then-husband’s infidelities.

The couple’s six-year relationship officially came to an end in 1995 when he had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter - who he went on to date for five years - but Thompson admitted she was “utterly blind” to her former spouse’s adultery, leading to her feeling “half alive” when the truth was revealed.

She told the New Yorker magazine: “I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set.

Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh at the 18th Annual LA Film Critics Association Awards, Bel Age Hotel, West Hollywood. Photo / Getty Images

“What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.

“I was half alive. Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely.”

Thompson recalled how she fell for Branagh on the set of Fortunes of War but admitted her relationship with the “hard to pry open” star was volatile.

She said: “He was incandescent with ambition and performance energy.

“Like two mating lobsters, we clashed claws.”

The Cruella star admitted she was “embarrassed” by the public perception of their marriage.

“I was embarrassed largely by the press version of our marriage.

“We didn’t present as glamorous in any way. I don’t think we wanted to be some power couple, and we certainly didn’t feel like it. We were lampooned and ridiculed, too - fair enough if you’re famous and overpaid - but it’s no fun.”

After the end of her first marriage, the Harry Potter actress met Greg Wise, who she hailed as the one who “picked up the pieces and put them back together” and after 27 years together, of which they have been married for 19, she admitted she has learned a lot.

She said: “I’ve learned more from my second marriage just by being married.

“As my mother says, ‘the first 20 years are the hardest’.”