Whovians were all in a stir over the past weekend when David Tennant returned to the Doctor Who franchise. Following the death of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, the character – who doesn’t die but regenerates – transformed into Tennant’s much-beloved tenth Doctor, making him both the tenth and fifteenth iteration of the British science-fiction character. Tennant, 51, last portrayed the character in 2010 before handing off the role to Matt Smith. Peter Capaldi and Whittaker followed, each taking the Tardis for a spin. Ncuti Gatwa is the next actor to portray The Doctor, but the shocking turn of events means that instead of being the fourteenth, he’ll be the Fifteenth Doctor.
“David Tennant, previously known as the 10th Doctor, is now also known as the 14th Doctor. Confused? Don’t worry, he seems a little perplexed too,” the BBC said in a statement, per Variety. Tennant and Catherine Tate, who played companion Donna Noble, will return to the franchise for three special episodes that will air in November 2023, coinciding with Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary (and handing off the Tardis to Gatwa.)
While fans count down the months until they see Tennant don his pinstriped suit and jacket yet again, here’s the scoop on his faithful companion (and mother of his children), Georgia Tennant.
David Tennant’s Wife Is Georgia Tennant
Born on Dec. 25, 1984, Georgia Tennant (née Moffett) is the daughter of actors Peter Moffett (professionally known as Peter Davison) and Sandra Dickinson. Since Georgia’s mother is American, she has dual citizenship but spent most of her life growing up in England. Georgia attended St. Edward’s School in Oxford and quickly followed in the family business, appearing in the show Peak Practice at age 15.
For Doctor Who fans, Georgia and David’s romance is a thing of pure fan glee. Peter Davison portrayed the fifth incarnation of The Doctor on Doctor Who from 1981 to 1984. She actually appeared on Doctor Who during Tennant’s run, portraying the daughter of Tennant’s Doctor in the 2008 episode, “The Doctor’s Daughter.” So, Georgia – who played the Doctor’s daughter – is the actual daughter of another Doctor (Davidson), and she married the actor who played her character’s father (Tennant) in 2011.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, David and Georgia worked together for Staged, a BBC comedy series where they played fictionalized versions of themselves alongside Michael Sheen, Simon Evans, Lucy Eaton, and Anna Lundberg. However, during a 2021 appearance on the Radio Times, Georgia said that she had to fight to get the part.
“Nobody seemed to want to let me do it,” she said. “For one part, I was told by a casting director that I wasn’t a convincing partner for him. I was like, ‘But we’re married. With quite a few kids!’ Basically, every actor who could possibly play the part would have to be eliminated in order for me to be allowed to play his wife.”
Georgia Is An Actor & Producer
“We’d always been a very private couple,” Georgia told The Guardian in 2021. “Staged was everything we’d never normally say yes to. Suddenly, our entire house is on TV, and so is a version of the relationship we’d always kept private. But that’s the way to do it, I guess. Go to the other extreme. Just rip off the Band-Aid.”
Apparently, Georgia is a very convincing actor. “People think I’m really a novelist because “Georgia” writes a novel in Staged. They’ve asked where they can buy my book. I should probably just write one now because I’ve done the marketing already,” she told The Guardian. Georgia is an actor, appearing on In The Dark (2017), Casualty (2014-2017), and The Bill (2002-2009). In 2022, she joined her husband to voice a character on an episode of The Sandman – and she was set to work alongside him that year on the new TV series, Hide.
Georgia is an executive producer of Hide, and she also co-produced 96 Ways to Say I Love You and other projects, like Staged and The Exit.
She Is A Wife & Mother
After a brief relationship with a university student, Georgia gave birth to her first child in 2002. That child would grow up to be Ty Tennant, who followed in the family business by joining House of the Dragon in 2022.
David and Georgia married in 2011 after three years of dating. “Because ‘Doctor Who’ had run through my life like a stick of rock, to end up marrying the daughter of one of the doctors, it all felt a bit stupid,” David told the BBC’s Gaby Roslin in 2020, according to The Independent.
Since tying the knot, David and Georgia have kept their private life out of the public eye. The couple has five children overall – Ty, Olive, Wilfred, Doris, and their youngest, Birdie. Georgia shared a rare photo of all of them in 2020, per Hello, but the picture was taken from behind, so none of their faces were showing.