It’s one of the most heartbreaking plot lines from Love Actually, and no matter how many times we re-watch this classic Christmas film, it still feels like a massive punch in the guts every time.
The affair between Alan Rickman‘s character and his secretary, played by German actress Heike Makatsch, is a shattering betrayal captured perfectly by Emma Thompson’s brilliant performance as Alan’s wife, culminating in that emotional scene, where she discovers the truth about her husband’s cheating.
Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman’s characters in Love Actually, during happier times. (Credit: Supplied)
In Love Actually, Emma’s character confronts her husband, who is caught out buying a beautiful gold necklace for his lover, and wonders aloud about the exact nature of their affair.
“Would you wait around to find out if it’s just a necklace, or if it’s sex and a necklace, or if, worst of all, it’s a necklace and love?” she asks her husband.
“Would you stay, knowing life would always be a little bit worse? Or would you cut and run?”
Well, one of the film’s writers, Emma Freud, sadly confirmed the worst, revealing that Harry and Mia’s affair wasn’t just emotional, and that they did in fact have sex.
When asked by a fan on Twitter in 2015 if the affair was ever consummated, Emma directly answered the very common fan question.
“DEFINITELY had an affair,” she wrote. “I begged richard [Love Actually director Richard Curtis] just to make it a flirtation, but no. the whole way.”
Harry and Mia flirting up a storm at the office Christmas party. (Credit: Supplied)
And the film’s ambiguous ending means fans of the film never find out if the couple end up staying together and working through their differences, or splitting.
But Emma revealed that they stay together, although “home isn’t as happy as it once was.”
Emma Thompson has revealed that the reason she was able to play that scene so well is because she herself had experienced a very similar heartbreak.
Her now ex-husband, acclaimed British actor Kenneth Branagh, allegedly had an affair with another actor, Helena Bonham Carter.
Emma and Kenneth were married in 1989, but in 1994 he reportedly began a relationship with Helena, who was his co-star at the time in a production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The heartbreaking scene where Emma Thompson’s character discovers her husband is having an affair. (Credit: Supplied)
In 1995, Emma announced her separation from Kenneth, who went on to date Helena Bonham Carter until 1999.
“That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through,” Emma Thompson told The Telegraph.
“I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it,” she explained.
“I’ve had so much bloody practice at crying in a bedroom, then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer.”
But Emma says all is now well between the trio, who would eventually all go onto star in the Harry Potter movie series together.
She says she holds no grudge against Helena or Kenneth.
“That is… all blood under the bridge,” she told The Sunday Times of her feelings about Helena years after the affair.
“You can’t hold on to anything like that. It’s pointless. I haven’t got the energy for it … Helena and I made our peace years and years ago … she’s a wonderful woman.”
Emma is now married to Greg Wise, a British actor and producer. The pair have been together since 2003.
