Chernobyl star Jessie Buckley reveals she married boyfriend in secret ceremony last year

Buckley, 34, was previously dating ‘Happy Valley’ star James Norton from 2015 until 2017

Jessie Buckley has revealed she secretly married her partner – identified only as “Freddie” – during a ceremony last summer.

The 34-year-old Irish actor said she has had “many moons” with her new husband as she described their wedding celebrations – complete with a keg of Guinness and gourmet cheese toasties – in a new interview.

Buckley, who was previously dating Happy Valley star James Norton, told Mail Online she met “Freddie” after they were introduced by a mutual friend, the music executive Marc Robinson.

The Oscar-nominated actor said that their wedding ceremony was held in Norfolk, and the event was catered by the couple’s friends Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson, who co-founded the Towpath Cafe in east London.

“One of my favourite memories of the day was: I wanted a keg of Guinness, and I definitely wanted their cheese toasties at a certain hour,” The Lost Daughter star told the newspaper. “And then they came and did breakfast the next day.”

The Hollywood actors’ strike – which brought the industry to a standstill last year – meant the newlyweds had a “whole year just to, like hang out”, the Olivier award-winning star continued.

“We actually just kind of bottled into friends’ holidays. Loads of friends were going away and they rented a place and were, like, ‘come with us’,” Buckley said of their “moons” after the wedding.

“It was really nice. Usually I’m away shooting or something, and because of the [Hollywood] strike everything got moved, so I’ve had a whole year just to, like, hang out.”

The Oscar-nominated actor was previously dating ‘Happy Valley’ star James Norton (Apple TV+)

Since the wedding, Buckley’s husband has “gone back to university to work in mental health”, she told the newspaper on Wednesday (17 January). The couple currently split their time between London and Norfolk, where they have properties.

Buckley and Norton, 38, began dating in 2015 after they met on the set ofWar & Peace, the BBC’s screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s historical novel.

Describing their subsequent break-up in 2017 as “acrimonious”, Buckley told the BBC: “It was acrimonious, but it’s a tough job to have a relationship and he is a great man and we are great friends. That’s it. How diplomatic can I sound?”

Appearing to address the reason for their split, she later admitted to The Times: “If you are away for a year filming, you are just not physically around at points.”

After his relationship with Buckley ended, Norton began dating his McMafia co-star Imogen Poots in 2018. He proposed to Poots after four years of dating.