Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson’s girlfriend Louise Ford, 44, was previously with fellow funnyman James Acastor – something the fellow comic alluded to during one of his own stand-up gigs
Comedian James Acastor, 40, previously opened up about the heartbreaking way he discovered his girlfriend Louise Ford, 44, had left him for the now 70-year-old Rowan Atkinson, star of new Netflix series, Man Vs Baby,
The Johnny English star’s other half had previously been in a relationship with James before she dated him- and the comic revealed onstage how he found out he’d been dumped.
The stand-up had been with actress Louise for two years when in 2014 the pair split. But it was only a year later that he found out she’d moved on with Rowan Atkinson – when he read about it in the paper.
READ MORE: ‘Beautifully realistic’ artificial tree gets price slashed by £160 weeks before Christmas
It was during a stand-up show that James made the sad confession, joking with his audience that he was the only person in history who’d been left for Mr Bean, 26 years Louise’s senior.
“I got left for Mr Bean,’ James quipped drily. “I found out a year after we split up. I opened the newspaper and there was a full-page story. No one else in the history of time has ever been left for Mr Bean.”
It’s believed James and Louise, who were living together, began to grow apart in 2013, while Louise was performing alongside Rowan in Quartermaine’s Terms at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre in 2013.
But James only realised the truth, twelve months on, that the pair had actually begun dating, following Rowan’s split from his wife of 24 years, Sunetra Sastry.
James added: ‘I’m a goddamn saint to have kept this in the back pocket so long. It’s my job to say things that are funny and the funniest thing that’s ever happened to anyone, happened to me and I put it on the back-burner out of respect.
‘Until you get left for Mr Bean, you don’t realise how frequently he pops up. There’s a shop two streets from my house that sells masks of his face. There’s nowhere where I’m going to go that he’s not there.’
But it wasn’t just James who was deeply affected by the new romance. Rowan’s daughter Lily Sastry spoke out for the first time in March about her parents’ painful divorce, confessing that it plunged her into ‘darkness’ and ‘chaos’.
Rowan officially separated from Lily’s mother, former BBC make-up artist Sunetra, in 2015 though they had been living under separate roofs since the previous year. Sunetra, 67, was granted a ‘quickie’ divorce on the grounds of his ‘unreasonable behaviour’, and he has been dating Louise since.
Upcoming artist Lilly confessed in a candid post that the breakdown of her parents’ relationship left her feeling very lonely during her 20s. ‘I went through so much chaos and loneliness. Now I am 30, I can see clearly where I was at and what was happening inside me during the darkest days.
‘It has taken me years to figure out my life and who I am, as well as become the best person I can be. I have made countless mistakes, and been hurt, lost, and alone many a time.’
Rowan’s latest telly outing is a festive/follow-up to last year’s Man vs. Bee – and sees the comedian reprise his role as Trevor Bingley, who becomes an accidental caretaker for a baby left behind at a school nativity play.
