HER tangled love life has been the source of ménage à trois rumours since it was revealed actress Tilda Swinton has a husband and a lover.
The 48-year-old star, however, has now come clean and revealed her actual domestic situation is far less controversial.
In an interview promoting her latest film, Swinton has finally admitted that her marriage to Scots artist and playwright Joh
n Byrne ended five years ago. However, the couple decided to continue living together in their Highland home. They have ten-year-old twins, Honor and Xavier.
The actress, fed up with continued speculation, has revealed her relationship with German born artist Sandro Kopp, 30, began four years ago when filming The Chronicles of Narnia in New Zealand.
They have been a couple ever since, with the actress revealing that Kopp, who is 18 years her junior, visits her Nairn home regularly and has played a major role in her children's lives.
The usually tight-lipped Swinton, who tends to stay out of the media limelight, said that the family are happy with the arrangement.
"I've been with Sandro for four years and John and I haven't been a couple for over five. My children have known and loved Sandro for almost half their lives," she said. "Maybe the unorthodox thing, it's sad to say, is that we're all so happy and this comes as a shock to people.
"When you say you love the father of your children and you also are in love with someone else, they immediately assume you're all in bed together.
"The idea that you have to defend yourself seems really sad."
Kopp, who moved to New Zealand in 2000, was working as an illustrator on the Narnia movie, which saw Swinton's performance as the White Witch propel her to international stardom.
She said: "He's a painter and he was drawing everybody, we were all in the wilderness together – but don't say I slept with him.
"There were 1,500 people there, for God's sake."
Swinton was speaking following the release of her latest film, the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, last month.
The film sees her reunited with George Clooney, whom she played alongside in Michael Clayton, a performance that won her the best supporting actress Oscar last year.
It also stars Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Joel Coen's wife, Frances McDormand.
Swinton and Clooney became close friends when filming Michael Clayton, creating difficulties when they were acting the bedroom scene in their latest film.
Swinton said the pair kept interrupting filming because they were laughing so much.
She added: "When I saw it I was amazed because I'd only ever seen takes where at some point someone cracked up.
"So it's good to see they managed to cut something together."
Burn After Reading is a black comedy about what happens when memoirs from a disgruntled former CIA analyst fall into the wrong hands.
Swinton was best known for British art-house films such as the 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, until playing the evil witch in The Chronicles of Narnia.
In 2004, she sat on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.
Discussing her recent rise to Holywood stardom, she said: "I've never signed up to things and I'm lucky.
"But I do think all the time about what it must be like if you start to break out, are miscast and want to change. It must be very painful."
Byrne, 68, most famously wrote and produced the hit 1980s television series Tutti Fruit, which helped launch the careers of both Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.
He is currently in a relationship with a 42-year-old theatrical lighting designer, Jeanine Davies.
BACKGROUND
THEY may have admitted they were no longer lover, but Tilda Swinton and John Byrne will remain the first couple of the Scottish Highlands.
Swinton became a household name when, at the age of 44, she starred in The Chronicles of Narnia.
She has, however, been a well-known actress in British cinema for more than 20 years and gained American recognition for roles in The Beach, with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Vanilla Sky, with Tom Cruise. Byrne started his career designing book covers and went on to create album covers for, amongs others, The Beatles, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly.
He is probably most famous for his television work, including Scotch & Wry, Tutti Frutti and Your Cheatin' Heart.
This year the couple created their own film festival in Nairn. Entry to the Ballerina Ballroom – the Cinema of Dreams classic film festival was a plate of fairy cakes.
The full article contains 779 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
