Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle, who was recently in the Netflix series Toxic Town alongside Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood, is already back on the big screen in a brand new ITV true crime series, alongside Doctor Who and Broadchurch legend David Tennant. The Hack follows the "shocking" real-life events of the phone hacking scandal that unfolded in the UK between 2002 and 2012, weaving together the parallel stories of the investigative journalist Nick Daves and the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Away from the exciting chaos of his roles, Robert, now 64, leads a mostly very private and rather quiet life with his family, including his wife of 28 years, who is also in the industry, and their children – some of whom are following in their creative parents' footsteps. Scroll down for all the information about The Hack star Robert Carlyle's family life...
Robert's wife of 28 years
Robert has been happily married to his wife, Anastasia Shirley, who works as a make-up artist, since 1997. The pair first met on the set of ITV series Cracker, in which he had a minor role alongside the late Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane, in 1996 and the two were married just a year later. In a 2015 interview, Robert told The Telegraph: "Even as a little boy, if I could have hand-picked the perfect woman to accompany me in this world and in this life, it would have been Anastasia, and that's as true today as it has ever been. She is just the best, and I love her to bits."
Since 2011, when Robert was filming the beloved Showtime fantasy series, Once Upon a Time, the couple have lived in Vancouver, Canada. However, the Scottish-born star still considers Glasgow as his home and the family splits their time between the cities. "It's the city that I return to in my head all the time," he told The Telegraph. "I never really left there."
Robert and Anastasia's three children
Robert and Anastasia share three children: Ava, 22, Harvey, 20, and Pearce Joseph, 18. Ava is a singer-songwriter, having released her first single, 'Fading (Skin Deep) back in July 2021. In an Instagram live, which took place on the night before the release of the single, she spoke about how her father inspired her career. She said: "I discovered I liked music - since I was born, really. I only picked up guitar when I was ten years old and my dad helped me learn to play and I really got into it. It's fun."
Since having his children, Robert's priorities have shifted, and he has become quite the family man. He told The Guardian in 2023: "My children came in the 2000s, so all the stuff in the 90s, there were no kids then, but once children arrive in your life, everything changes overnight. So that becomes more important. That becomes your focus. And you begin to think, 'Oh, the other stuff's not actually worth bothering about'."