Dominic West admits 2020 photos with Lily James were 'deeply stressful' for his wife

But "The Crown" actor says he and spouse Catherine FitzGerald enjoyed how "the papers would always say we were ‘putting on a show of unity.'"

Dominic West's marriage is indeed still going strong, four years after he was photographed intimately with former costar Lily James. In a new interview with The Times of London, the actor acknowledged how weird that incident was for his family.

“It was an absurd situation," West says. "It was deeply stressful for my wife and my kids, but there were lighter moments.”

West's immediate response to the 2020 publication of paparazzi photos of him vacationing in Rome with James (his costar at the time in The Pursuit of Love) was to take a photo kissing his wife Catherine FitzGerald outside of their London home. They included a handwritten note that said, "Our marriage is strong and we're very much still together. Thank you. Catherine and Dominic."

West and FitzGerald remain together, with the actor joking to The Times that his wife often teases him about playing upper-class British characters like Prince Charles on The Crown: "My wife, who is genuinely upper class, always tells me, ‘You’re much better in the working-class parts.'"

West also added that he and his wife got a kick out of how the press covered them following their public note in 2020.

“I hesitate to speak on my wife’s behalf because it was obviously horrible, particularly for her,” he says. “But we do joke about it sometimes. Because whenever we went out together, the papers would always say we were ‘putting on a show of unity’. Even if we’d just been rowing about parking the car or whatever, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth. And so when we go out we do sort of say, ‘Shall we go and have a show of unity up in London?’"

At this point, there's nothing superficial about their unity.

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