'He's a lucky guy': Olivia Colman on the secrets to her 25-year marriage - and the one piece of relationship advice she swears by
The Oscar-winning actress is married to the man she first met at university
One of Britain’s most beloved actresses, Olivia Colman’s career is full of triumphs, including winning an Oscar, BAFTAs, Emmys and Golden Globes.
Off-screen, Olivia holds another accolade few in her business can claim - a decades long marriage. Olivia has been married to Ed Sinclair for 25 years, with the couple celebrating their Silver Anniversary in August of this year.
While promoting her new movie, Wicker, Olivia shared her characteristically down-to-earth advice for making their marriage last. After cracking that he's a "lucky guy", she revealed that the two always remember to be "kind to each other”.
She added that there's a piece of advice she was once given that she also tries to live by. “I heard from one person once had been married for about 50 years. ‘Sometimes it's the things you don't say’, which was very wise.”
Another nugget of wisdom from Olivia hinges on handling tougher moments. She added, “Wait for the right moment to bring it up.
"I'm not sure that I'm not a conflict person, nor is my husband, but we've learned over the years to definitely try and talk about, ‘You know that thing on Tuesday? Can we talk about that in a calm way?’
“It works well… if one of us has been upset by it, then we'll talk it through.”
The Oscar-winning actress first met her husband when they were students at Cambridge University. For Olivia, it was love at first sight.
Per the Metro, Olivia said upon meeting Ed, “That’s the bloke I’m going to marry.”
She added, “My husband and I were very lucky. We met when we had nothing and we loved each other then. So we were all right. We were 20 and he was also an actor. If you meet at that age then you are fine.
“For me, it was thunderbolts straight away. I still feel like I’m punching above my weight.”
They married in 2001 and share two sons: Finn, born in 2005, and Hall, born in 2007, as well as a daughter whose name has been kept private whom they welcomed in 2015.
While promoting her film, The Roses, in 2025, Olivia opened up more about her family life. She told the BBC that one of the most important things between her and her husband is making sure they’re always “being nice and checking in on each other".
Olivia also spoke about the sense of guilt that comes from being a busy working parent.
"From the moment you have a child, you'll have guilt. I took my eldest on set with me when he was six weeks old and I thought it would be easy but regretted it and even while he was on set, I felt enormous guilt because it didn't feel like the right environment for him to be in”.
