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Actors Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen met while working on the BBC drama Spooks in 2002 and married in 2004. They have two children together, and Hawes has a son from her earlier marriage; the couple also reunited professionally in the 2023 ITV drama Stonehouse.
Actors Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen have been together for more than two decades, after meeting on the BBC spy drama Spooks in 2002, and married in 2004. A profile published by ELLE recounts their relationship, family and work, including their 2023 reunion in ITV’s Stonehouse as the couple prepared to discuss Hawes’s next season of The Assassin.
Hawes and Macfadyen were both cast in Spooks, known as MI-5 in the United States. Hawes played intelligence officer Zoe Reynolds opposite Macfadyen. Hawes was married to cartoonist Spencer McCallum when she met Macfadyen; they later divorced in 2004. Hawes and Macfadyen married later that year, according to ELLE.
Hawes has spoken about falling in love with Macfadyen during filming. In a 2022 Vanity Fair profile of Macfadyen, she recalled that he told her, “I love you” in the rain. The account is Hawes’s recollection of the moment, rather than an independently documented description of their courtship.
The couple have two children, Maggie and Ralph. Hawes also has a son, Myles, from her marriage to McCallum; ELLE reports that Hawes and Macfadyen co-parent him. They have both continued working as actors during their marriage, while Hawes has also taken on producing. She founded Buddy Club Productions in 2019 and has starred in its series Crossfire and Finding Alice.
Two Careers, One Family
Their story offers a public account of how two working actors have managed family responsibilities alongside careers that can involve filming away from home. Macfadyen described that balance in a 2015 interview with The Big Issue, saying that when one of them works away, the other is usually at home. That is a description of their own arrangement, not a claim that the same approach works for every family.
Their collaboration in Stonehouse also brought their professional and personal lives into the same project. Hawes told Town & Country that the real people they portrayed were very different from the couple, while Macfadyen said he welcomed the chance to work together. Those comments provide a rare glimpse of how the pair discuss a shared job publicly without suggesting that their roles reflect their marriage.
Hawes’s work as a producer adds another dimension to the profile. Buddy Club Productions represents a move into making projects as well as performing in them, a career development she described to Variety as a natural progression. Her work across acting and production is relevant to readers following her career, while Macfadyen remains known for roles including Tom Wambsgans in Succession and Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice.
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From Spooks to Stonehouse
Hawes grew up in Marylebone, London, and attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School after becoming interested in acting through school productions. In interviews with the Financial Times in 2018 and the Guardian in 2019, she described a happy childhood and pushed back on media portrayals of her background as a “rags to riches” story. She said her parents were not part of the acting industry.
Her early television career included Spooks, where she met Macfadyen, and later roles in Line of Duty, Traitors and Bodyguard. Macfadyen’s credits include Pride & Prejudice and Succession. Their joint 2023 project, Stonehouse, dramatized the story of British MP John Stonehouse, who attempted to fake his death in 1974. Macfadyen played Stonehouse and Hawes played his wife, Barbara.
In a 2010 interview with the Telegraph, Hawes said, “I love being married to Matthew”, describing marriage and motherhood as important to her life. Macfadyen spoke in 2015 about trying to keep both careers active while focusing on their family. Their remarks show how they have described their priorities at different points, but do not provide a full account of their private arrangements.
““Matthew just came straight out with it and said ‘I love you’ in the rain one day. I thought, ‘Oh dear, here we go.’””
— Keeley Hawes, in a 2022 Vanity Fair profile of Matthew Macfadyen
Private Details Stay Private
The available reporting does not establish the couple’s current day-to-day childcare arrangements, or how they divide responsibilities around particular projects. Macfadyen’s 2015 remarks describe a general approach at that time, not necessarily their present schedule. The source also offers only a brief account of their home routines and does not provide a detailed update on their children, who are not public figures.
ELLE’s profile refers to a Sunday Times interview with Hawes ahead of The Assassin’s second season, mentioning dog walks, Pilates and gardening. It does not provide further detail in the supplied material, including when the season will be released or whether Macfadyen is involved. No new marriage or family announcement is reported; the piece is a profile of their relationship and careers.
Hawes’s Next Screen Role
The immediate career milestone cited is the second season of The Assassin, in which Hawes plays Julie. The source material does not give a release date or additional production details. Macfadyen and Hawes’s last shared screen project mentioned in the profile is Stonehouse, which aired on ITV in 2023; no new joint project is announced.
For readers following the couple, further updates are likely to come through their upcoming acting work and interviews. Until either actor shares more, details of their private family life beyond what they have already discussed remain limited.
Key Questions
How did Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen meet?
They met in 2002 while both were cast in the BBC spy drama Spooks. Hawes played Zoe Reynolds, and Macfadyen was also a leading cast member.
When did Hawes and Macfadyen get married?
They married in 2004, the year Hawes divorced her first husband, cartoonist Spencer McCallum.
Do Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen have children?
They have two children together, Maggie and Ralph. Hawes also has a son, Myles, from her earlier marriage, and the couple co-parent him, according to ELLE.
Have they acted together since Spooks?
Yes. They reunited in the 2023 ITV drama Stonehouse. Macfadyen played MP John Stonehouse, and Hawes played his wife, Barbara Stonehouse.
What is Keeley Hawes working on next?
The profile identifies Hawes as returning for the second season of The Assassin, in which she plays Julie. The supplied source material does not state a release date.
Source: rss
