Although it's been three years since they parted ways after nine years of marriage, James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff have reunited on-screen in BBC drama His Dark Materials. The X-Men actor, 40, touched upon about his separation from Anne-Marie in a previous interview with Mr Porter magazine in 2017, admitting: "My life has changed massively. At the same time so much has stayed the same. One of the things that’s stayed the same is that I still don’t talk about my personal life, really."
The couple, who are parents to nine-year-old son Brendan, initially continued to live together after their split, but James has since moved into his own place - not far from the family home in Crouch End. They were married in a small ceremony in 2006 after meeting on the set of Shameless, and have since kept their marriage relatively out of the spotlight.
© Photo: Getty ImagesJames McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff remain on good terms after split
He added: "Me and Anne-Marie, when we were together, it was our policy not to speak about each other in public. We rarely broke that and if we did, it was for tiny things – 'Yes, we are cooking turkey this Christmas' – and that policy still stands. Even separated, we're still respectful of each other and committed to doing that publicly and personally."
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Although the star is a big name in Hollywood, James went on to reveal that he had almost rejected a lucrative deal for a Prada campaign - but said Anne-Marie had made him see sense. "The money was incredible," he confessed. "And Anne-Marie kept saying to me, 'Are you gonna turn that down?'
"Even separated, we're still respectful of each other," he said
"'Yeah I'm gonna [sic] turn that down. I'm not a salesman.' 'Do something with it. Give it to charity.' And I was like, 'Ding!' About four minutes after she said that to me I was on the phone to the agent. 'Yeah, I'll do it.'" When the stars announced their divorce in May last year, the statement read: "It is with tremendous sadness that we have come to the decision to divorce. We enter this next phase with continued friendship, love and respect for one another and the shared focus of caring for our son. We ask that you respect our and, most importantly, our child’s privacy during this time."
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