Coping with bad breakups is famously documented in rom-coms, from eating tubs of ice cream to crying to sad music. But James Norton found a far more profound answer to his break-up from Fright Night actress Imogen Poots in 2023, as he has revealed in a new interview.
Sitting down with the Guardian, the Happy Valley star, 40, revealed that splitting from his ex-fiancée and partner of six years was a "massive change". It was a major life shift that he first addressed publicly on the Information stage at Glastonbury Festival this year.
"I lost the person," he said of the break-up during a panel at the festival. "But I also lost the life I was about to lead, the kids we had named, all that kind of stuff."
He added: "It's very [expletive] hard, but it happened in a very abrupt way, and it happened kind of to me, and I thought that I was on a path. I was about to have kids, about to get married, all that kind of stuff, and my life just turned around, completely changed direction."
Speaking to the newspaper, James said that around the time of the split, he started playing dads, such as in ITV's Playing Nice, which compounded his heartbreak.
"If you’d asked me at 25, I probably thought I might have a kid by 40," he reflected. "But equally, I had a f*****g great 30s, and hopefully kids might still be in my life at some point. That’s the privilege of being a man and not having to worry about my biological clock."
James' answer to heartbreak
James' response to his grief was to embark upon a trip to Plum Village, a Buddhist retreat in France founded by Thích Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk and activist.
He had previously been interested in religion, having studied theology at the University of Cambridge before he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but this was different.
"With Buddhism, you don't really talk about faith. The teaching isn't about worship. It's about the self," James said.
"It's about one's own journey and experience of the world. And it's been amazing for me. It's an incredible community and it's given me an opportunity to just stop and recognise the value of quiet, peaceful space, which I don't often give myself in life."
James' sanctuary
Away from the public eye, the star of the BBC's upcoming drama King & Conqueror lives in Peckham, though he grew up in Yorkshire.
Speaking to BBC Radio York last December, the Granchester actor said of his hometown: "My family are still there, my parents and my sister live near the York and Malton area, so I'm often up.
"I'm a Yorkshireman - I don't sound like it anymore - but I'm a Yorkshireman through and through, so to come home is always a pleasure."