Alongside her unforgettable role on Downton Abbey, Imelda Staunton is best known for her roles in Harry Potter, The Crown, and Vera Drake. Meanwhile, her husband Jim Carter has starred in the historical ITV drama as the condescending butler Mr Carson since the show’s inception. The couple met in 1982 during rehearsals for Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre in London.

They married a year later, welcomed one daughter, Bessie Carter and have been together ever since. Speaking on their long-lasting relationship, Imelda revealed that early in their marriage, they ensured to prioritise their relationship over their careers, as she revealed: “I think when we got married, we did say, ‘Look, there’s no point if we’re going to be apart.’”

In an interview with Vogue, the actress explained: “Early on, Jim did a lot more telly and films than I was doing in the Eighties. If he was going to go to an exotic location, we’d go, ‘Right, well, I can come out that weekend.’ 

“So we made that work. Or there’s two jobs, I can go and do that. Do you need to do that? OK? Lovely.” While Jim Carter has been on the franchise since the beginning, his wife joined Downton Abbey during the first movie of the same name in 2019.

“We were across a dining room table from each other, but we never spoke to each other in the first film,” he told Town & Country in July 2022.

In the second movie, 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era, the couple share a brief scene that craftily hints at their real-life relationship status, which shows them in a hat shop in France where their characters were mistaken for a couple.

“It was just a short, cheeky little scene with the French hat seller. It was nice but very quick,” he explained to the publication.

Their daughter also followed in their footsteps and is also a well-known actor as Bessie currently stars as Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton and previously appeared in Beecham House and 2012’s of Les Misérables.

As for their relationship, Imelda added: “I feel Jim and I have made our lives work as a marriage within this business, and we take our life more seriously than our jobs.”

“Of course, we both take [the job] very seriously. But you go, what’s the most important thing here? That I play another part? Or that we go on a very nice holiday, or that we have that time in the garden, that we have our life?

She continued: “But we can afford to say that, I don’t mean financially, but with the work we’ve done and are lucky enough to still be doing. I think we know how fortunate we are.”