Renee Zellweger and Ant Anstead are reportedly engaged following a very private two-year relationship, but they almost didn't meet at all. The Bridget Jones' Diary actress, 54, and the TV presenter, 44, first crossed paths in April 2021, shortly after the death of her publicist Nanci Ryder. Renee stumbled across the HGTV series Celebrity IOU, in which a celebrity – in this case, Brad Pitt – honors someone in their life by having the Property Brothers renovate their home.
After she heard about the spin-off show Celebrity IOU: Joyride, in which Ant rebuilt classic cars for deserving people in their lives, Renee decided to join the show. She wanted to help twin nurses Jerome Cowan and Jerald Cowan who had looked after Nanci in the final years of her life.
So she may never have met Ant had she not wanted to honor her late friend. She later told Harper's Bazaar that she "jokes about" the publicist bringing her and Ant together.
"She's always doing her best. It made me smile. It made me smile to think on this, yeah, the serendipity of it all," she said.
© InstagramThe couple kept their relationship out of the spotlight, with Ant admitting during an appearance on E!’s Daily Pop in August of that year: "Look … everybody knows that Renee and I have become quite close, because we kept it secret for a while, and unfortunately some pictures were taken and put out there."
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He then went on to say it had been a "real pleasure" to work with the actress on the show, noting: "She's super pro, and she can weld!"
They only shared their first photo with his children Archie, 16, and Amelie, 19, in July 2023. They were dressed to the nines for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with Renee wearing a one-shoulder gold gown while Ant rocked a tuxedo, and his children looked glamorous in black. Captioning the picture on his Instagram, Ant wrote: “@fosgoodwood How it started, How it ended x @landrover @radfordmotors,” and fondly labeled his kids as “absolute utter LEGENDS.”
Ant shares his kids with his first wife Louise, who he divorced in 2017. He went on to date his second wife Christina Hall in 2017 and they got married at their Newport Beach home the following December.
© InstagramThey welcomed their son Hudson before announcing their split in September 2020.
Meanwhile, Renee tied the knot with singer Kenny Chesney in May 2005, but they split just four months later. Opening up about the reason for the short marriage, he confessed to Oprah Winfrey in 2010 that everything important to him in his life is in a box that he protects, but said his relationship with Renee "was out of the box."
Speaking about not being ready for marriage, he added: "It really is tough, and she's a sweet soul, no doubt about it, but I just wasn't ready... This is the first time I've actually talked about it, but that's what happened."
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