ioan gruffard alice evans© Photo: Getty Images

Alice Evans breaks down on Lorraine speaking about split from ex-husband Ioan Gruffudd 

Alice revealed that the divorce has turned acrimonious

TV and film writer
November 11, 2021

Alice Evans has given an emotional interview talking about the breakdown of her marriage with Ioan Gruffudd, her first TV interview since publicly tweeting about the split. 

MORE: Alice Evans accuses estranged husband Ioan Gruffudd of three year affair - details 

The interview comes after Alice accused her husband, Ioan Gruffudd, of having an affair with Bianca Wallace while filming for the Australian TV show Harrow. The couple announced their split earlier this year after Ioan filed for a divorce. 

WATCH: Alice opened up about her split from Ioan Gruffudd

The actress, who has been with Ioan for 20 years, spoke to Lorraine Kelly on her morning show and revealed that the couple are on bad terms since the split, and also opened up about her shock after learning about his new relationship. 

Alice told Lorraine that the split was unexpected, saying that she didn’t think that this would ever happen to her. She said: "We’d been together for 20 years and I think I was one of those very complacent…smug married…I thought it was never going to happen to me…"

She continued: "He told me within the first few days, 'I just don’t love you anymore,' which was, and I’m not questioning his right to feel that, I’m not bashing him, but it was so out of the blue. And then for about four months we just continued and he just kept saying 'I’m sorry I just don’t feel the same for you anymore, I might leave, I might not leave.'" 

MORE: Alice Evans admits she was completely blindsided as Ioan Gruffudd files for divorce

MORE: Ioan Gruffudd's wife Alice Evans details 'excruciating pain' in heartbreaking new statement after split

The actress also spoke about her experience living with Ioan during the pandemic, revealing that her husband was very distant from her. She said: "It got to the point where I’d been on my own for the whole pandemic with my two kids, I’ve looked after them for ten years when he’s mostly filmed for the past ten years outside of Los Angeles. I was here and he was here but he wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t look at me, went to sleep in the spare room."

ioan gruffard insta© Photo: Instagram

Alice described the moment she saw the Instagram, photo shared by Ioan 

The 102 Dalmatians actress spoke about the moments leading up to her tweeting about the split, even admitting that she thought she might "do herself harm". She said: "Eventually, I thought I might do myself harm because, I spoke to my friends and they kept saying: 'This is not like him, this just doesn’t sound right,’ and my friends just didn’t know what to say to me and at one point I just thought: 'I’m going to lose my mind,' and I just tweeted: 'He’s leaving us,' and then all hell broke loose."

Chatting to Lorraine about the reaction she got from the tweet and the support she has received from strangers, she explained: "Initially, nobody had really done this before and I would say that the reaction was about 50/50."

"A lot of people were shocked and there was so much talk about a dignified silence and I’ve got to do this because I don’t understand how you can talk about a dignified silence when I’m talking about my entire life falling into pieces around me."

She continued: "But I think as people understood what had happened, I would say support is now 80 or 90 to ten, in favour of me, not in favour of me against him, but in favour of me speaking out."

MORE: Ioan Gruffudd's wife Alice Evans announces shock split: 'My husband doesn't love me'

Alice also disclosed that there is currently no communication between herself and Ioan. Breaking down in tears to Lorraine, she explained, "He won’t talk to me, he’ll only talk to me through lawyers and even when I lean into the phone when he sometimes, rarely, talks to the children on FaceTime, he will move away and then call the lawyers. I don’t know why."

© Photo: Getty Images

Alice revealed that the divorce has turned "nasty"

Alice also described the moment she saw Ioan’s Instagram post that disclosed his relationship with Biana Wallace. She said: "I think I’m okay to say this, as I say I don’t want to bash him at all, he’s probably going through hell as well, but he insisted until two weeks ago that there was nobody else…And then my phone pinged and it said 'Ioan Gruffudd' has unblocked you on Instagram, or whatever, and I thought, 'Oh, oh my god maybe there’s a chance that he wants to talk or something,' and then it was announced by him and his mistress that they were a couple, on Instagram two weeks ago. 

Teary-eyed, she continued: "And I just looked at the picture and it said something like, 'Finally somebody who can make me happy,' and then people started pinging from his set in Australia saying, 'So glad you guys are finally out and you’re allowed to be happy and you’re not being held back anymore,' and I was just slayed, I was slayed."

MORE: Ioan Gruffudd reveals he was gripped by Liar storyline: 'I couldn't put the scripts down'

Breaking down in tears, she said: "This is my husband, I’m so sorry… I think I was owed more than an Instagram after 20 years of marriage and two children and it was a little bit cowardly so I’m still a little bit in shock about that and a little bit in shock about the way some of the people who must have known.

© Photo: Getty Images

Ioan filed for divorce earlier this year

"And I feel like a bit of an idiot as well because you know how hindsight is 20/20 and there are now moments I now realise looking back… I’m pretty sure this has been going on for quite a while, it’s not somebody that he has just met now."

When asked about her plans for the future, Alice revealed that she and Ioan have "a very, very messy and long divorce" ahead of them. She also said that she didn’t know whether she’d be able to stay in their house or how much she will be able to have her children. She said: "Originally, it was going to be an amicable divorce and I thought that I could deal with that, but now it’s gotten very nasty for some reason and I don’t know why."

Lorraine did reveal that her team had reached out to both Ioan and Bianca but they had declined to comment. 

Like this story? Sign up to our newsletter to get other stories like this delivered straight to your inbox.

More TV and Film

See more