Michelle Dockery has insisted she’s nothing like her character Lady Mary Crawley as she hit back at claims she is posh after revealing her pregnancy at the at the premiere.

The actress, 43, is best known for playing the eldest daughter of an Earl in the ITV drama since it launched in 2010.

Many have likened Michelle’s life to that of her character, particularly after the heartbreaking loss of her fiancé, PR director John Dineen, who died of cancer at just 34.

Like Lady Mary, she too was left widowed.

However, Michelle has made it clear she’s nothing like the ‘posh’ aristocrat she portrays in the hit period drama.

The actress came from modest beginnings in Romford, East, with mum Lorraine, a care home assistant, and dad Michael, a lorry driver.

Michelle Dockery has insisted she’s nothing like her character Lady Mary Crawley as she hit back at claims she is posh after revealing her pregnancy at the at the premiere

The actress, 43, is best known for playing the eldest daughter of an Earl in the ITV drama since it launched in 2010

In a new interview with The Sun, she revealed that one of her favourite early jobs was working in a fish and chip shop. 

She told the publication: ‘I worked there for a couple of years when I was a teenager, two or three nights a week, while I was doing my GCSEs and A-levels – and I loved it.’

Michelle then clarified: ‘I’m not like Lady Mary at all. For one thing, I’m not actually posh.

‘I had a very strong Essex accent when I was younger, and I don’t think I would have got the role of Lady Mary if I’d walked into the audition going, ‘Allo, nice ter meet yer’.’

It comes just days after Michelle debuted her growing baby bump on the red carpet at Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Wednesday night.

She was joined her husband, film producer Jasper Waller-Bridge, 37, as they announced their happy news.

Michelle arrived in a powder blue off-the-shoulder ballgown with a fitted bodice as she showed off her bump.

Stars gathered to celebrate the finale of beloved Downton Abbey, after an incredible 15 years of the TV series and a trilogy of movies.

It comes just days after Michelle debuted her growing baby bump on the red carpet at Downton Abbey : The Grand Finale premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Wednesday night

She was joined her husband, film producer Jasper Waller-Bridge, 37, as they announced their happy news

Stars gathered to celebrate the finale of beloved Downton Abbey, after an incredible 15 years of the TV series and a trilogy of movies

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which releases September 12, is set in 1930, some 18 years after the first episode.

It follows the Crawley family in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash and Lady Mary’s scandalous divorce.

Michelle married Jasper in 2023 in a romantic ceremony which was attended by her Downton Abbey co-stars.

The star was left heartbroken in 2015 when her fiancé, Irish publicist John , died following a 15-month battle against a rare form of cancer.

The couple met in 2013 and he proposed just under two years later but the pair never made it down the aisle. 

However, in a rare interview in 2017 Michelle told how she still considered herself to be a widow.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which releases September 12, is set in 1930, some 18 years after the first episode

The Mail on Sunday first revealed that Michelle had found love for the first time following his passing after they met through mutual friends in 2019 and soon after they spent time together at the Rome film festival.

Michelle was understood to be friends with her new husband’s older sister, and the two stars crossed paths when they both spent time in Los Angeles over the summer.

In January 2022 she and Jasper announced they were to marry in an announcement in The Times newspaper.

It read: ‘The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.’

Michelle has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

Off screen, Michelle keeps her private life out of the publicly eye, with the actress not appearing to have active social media accounts.