Thandiwe Newton is a critically-acclaimed and beloved actress (no pun intended), also known by the name Thandie. After getting small roles in the early 1990s, she went on to major success with 1998’s Beloved as well as Mission Impossible II in 2000. She’s been a TV and movie main-stay ever since, starring in the likes of The Pursuit of Happiness and West World. Alongside her through much of her success has been her husband Ol Parker.
While nothing is confirmed, there have been rumors that Thandiwe and Ol split up as of April 2022, according to The Sun. The reported split came as the actress was working on the upcoming third Magic Mike sequel. Find out more about Thandiwe and Ol’s relationship here
How Did Thandiwe and Ol Meet?
Despite reports that the two have split, Thandiwe and Ol’s relationship started almost instantaneously, when they met in 1996. Thandiwe revealed that she met her future husband while she was working on the TV movie In Your Dreams, which he wrote, in a 2009 interview with InStyle. “He wrote a screenplay called In Your Dreams that I filmed in 1997 [note: In Your Dreams was released in 1996, per IMDb]. It’s very unusual to have writers around on set because directors don’t want them there. But they love having Ol around. He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,” she said, via Express. “But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else.” The chemistry must’ve been perfect, because the pair ended up getting married in 1998.
Ol is a writer
Like Thandiwe, Ol is also in the entertainment industry, but he’s mostly behind the camera. Other than In Your Dreams, he is also the writer behind plenty of successful films, including the Judi Dench and Maggie Smith-starring The Exotic Marigold Hotel, which earned him a BAFTA nomination. He also penned the Dakota Fanning–starring Now is Good in 2012.
He has directed a bit
While Ol is primarily a writer, he has stepped into the director’s chair on a few occasions, including for his 2012 screenplay Now Is Good. He also directed the 2005 romcom Imagine Me And You as well as the 2018 musical sequel Mamma Mia Here We Go Again. He’s also the director for Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s upcoming 2022 flick Ticket to Paradise.
The couple have three kids
Since the pair tied the knot in 1998, Thandiwe and Ol have had three children: their daughters Ripley, 22, and Nico Parker, 17, and a son Booker Jombe, 8. Their younger daughter Nico has followed in her mom’s footsteps and begun a career as an actress. She’s appeared in the movies Dumbo and Reminiscence and the TV show The Third Day, via IMDb.
There are rumors that they’ve separated
After 24 years of marriage, rumors started to circulate that Thandiwe and Ol had split up in April 2022. While nothing is certain, the reports that she and her husband had broken up came after she supposedly was taken off set during the filming of Magic Mike 3, a source had told Page Six. “Thandiwe had been acting strange on set,” the source said. “There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed.” Still, these are only rumors, and their separation has not been confirmed.