Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington is to join this year’s Strictly Come Dancing but is she married and what was her relationship with former co-star Martin Freeman?

The 49-year-old has starred in several top drama series, including Mr Selfridge, Wolfe, and Desperate Measures, she also had a lead role in The Net and feature film The Lost King.

Describing herself as ‘shy and self-conscious’ – not something that came across on her newly-deleted Twitter account – Amanda said she was ‘incredibly excited’ to learn to dance.

She added: ‘I’m really looking forward to the training too, I’m quite competitive as my family and friends will tell you. I can’t wait to start!’

Amanda starred alongside Martin’s Dr John Watson as as Mary Morstan in Sherlock – and in the series, John and Mary married. The role won her the Best Supporting Actress gong at the Crime Thriller Awards, alongside nominations at the Critic’s Choice Television Awards. 

Earlier this year, Amanda admitted getting the Sherlock job because of her relationship with Martin, saying: ‘there was a lot of nepotism being banded around. It’s true, it was that.’ 

Let’s find out about Amanda’s married life and relationship with Martin Freeman.

Was Amanda Abbington married to Martin Freeman?

The couple met on the set of Men Only in 2000, and were in a long-term relationship for 16 years, but unlike their characters in Sherlock, they didn’t marry.

They were together from 2000 until 2016 and have two children – son Joe, 17, and daughter Grace, 15. 

Amanda told The Sunday Times magazine: ‘When we broke up nobody knew, we didn’t tell anybody except for a few key people because they had to know, because of the logistics of hotels and stuff.

‘It took six months for it to get out and a lot of that was while we were working on Sherlock…We were professional and we were going to get on and make a show and be civil to each other.

‘We still get on really well, we still really both admire each other as actors… he’s a great guy, but we just couldn’t live with each other any more.’

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In March, Amanda revealed that the break-up with Martin had a devastating effect on her mental health, and she considered taking her own life.

Speaking on the Full Disclosure podcast, Amanda said: ‘It was breaking up with Martin and then realising I needed to sort myself out because I was a bit of a mess. I hated myself.’ 

She recalled an argument she got into with daughter Grace while driving the teen to school one day. 

Sharing her state of mind at the time, she explained: ‘And I was sat there as I was driving, in my head, and I haven’t said this since I started therapy six years ago, “you could always kill yourself”. 

She continued: ‘That was a genuine option for me, quite a few times in my life. Then I don’t have to be this bad ­person because I don’t have to be here any more.’ 

In 2022, Martin, 51, told the Radio Times about co-parenting Joe and Grace.

He said: Me and their mum [Amanda] don’t live together so there are times where they’re inevitably going to not be with you, or when they say, “Maybe not this weekend”

‘It’s hard not to feel hurt when they start doing things that don’t involve you, even though you understand it and welcome it because it’s totally natural.’

Amanda went on to date The Queen’s Gambit star Jonjo O’Neill but they parted ways in 2021 after four years together.

Who is Amanda dating now?

Amanda is currently in a relationship with former Britain’s Got Talent daredevil and escapologist Jonathan Goodwin.

They connected through Twitter back in 2012, when Amanda was dating Martin, but it wasn’t until August 2021 that they began chatting regularly online and swapped numbers.

Amanda told The Guardian: ‘I was on him like a rat up a drainpipe. I had fancied him for a few years…I was like a giddy schoolgirl, constantly messaging him while he was at work.’

They finally met in VIenna at the end of that month, and within half an hour, they were engaged. But just weeks later, while Jonathan was filming in the US, a stunt on TV show America’s Got Talent: Extreme went wrong.

He almost died and was left paralysed for life.

Amanda recalled her partner sending her a voice note before his surgery, when he told her that there was a 50% chance that he wouldn’t make it, that he loved her and thanked her for the months they’d spent together.

She flew straight to Atlanta. ‘He told me we had a lot to talk about. I said: “Unless it’s about the wedding, then no, we don’t.” Breaking up never flashed through my mind. I just thanked God he was alive.’

The couple now live together in Hertfordshire.

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