Zawe Ashton has finally set the record straight about her relationship with Tom Hiddleston after sparking speculation they’d secretly tied the knot by calling him her ‘husband’ last month.

The 41-year-old actress, who is pregnant with her second child with Hollywood star Tom, 44, admitted her slip-up sent their loved ones into a furious tailspin.

‘We’ve been engaged for a long time, and there have been publications that have named us husband and wife already,’ Zawe said. 

‘Those text messages [from friends and family] were very… there were some toxic paragraphs that were thrown my way. Like, okay… no, it didn’t happen. We didn’t do it in secret. We haven’t eloped.’

Speaking on the latest episode of Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver’s Miss Me? podcast, The Marvels star added: ‘It’s just a semantics thing. We call each other husband and wife. 

‘At some point, you’re like, girlfriend, boyfriend… We just had a kid with another one on the way.’

Zawe Ashton has finally set the record straight about her relationship with Tom Hiddleston after sparking speculation they’d secretly tied the knot by calling him her ‘husband’ 

The actress, who is pregnant with her second child with Hollywood star Tom, admitted her slip-up sent their loved ones into a furious tailspin (pictured together in June)

Zawe, who welcomed her first child with Tom three years ago and is due to give birth to their second any day now, added that their unusual approach to labels had ruffled some feathers.

‘It’s p***ing off people who are actually married,’ she said. ‘They’re like, “You realise that’s not real yet?”

‘We’ve talked about [marriage]. I think the spiritual bond and the anchoring for what it does for you as a couple and as a family is really appealing to both of us.’

The pair first met in 2019 while starring together in the Harold Pinter play Betrayal in London’s West End before taking the production to Broadway. 

They were romantically linked soon after, making their red carpet debut as a couple at the Tony Awards in September 2021.

In March 2022, it was reported that they were engaged after Zawe was spotted wearing a diamond ring at the BAFTAs. They quietly welcomed their first child later that year.

The Hackney-born actress also admitted that while she’s thought a lot about weddings, the idea of marriage comes with more complex emotions.

She said: ‘The wedding is a fantasy, right? And marriage is a reality. I’ve thought a lot about weddings. I’ve thought a lot less about the reality of what marriage is because I probably find that a little bit more scary.’

The pair first met in 2019 while starring together in the Harold Pinter play Betrayal in London’s West End before taking the production to Broadway (seen in 2019)

‘We’ve been engaged for a long time, and there have been publications that have named us husband and wife already,’ Zawe told Miquita Oliver on the Miss Me? podcast 

‘It’s just a semantics thing. We call each other husband and wife. At some point, you’re like, girlfriend, boyfriend… We just had a kid with another one on the way’ 

Zawe, who rose to fame starring in the hit comedy series Fresh Meat, also opened up about her feminist concerns with the institution of marriage and traditional elements of a wedding.

‘There’s so much problematic history to it… Are we saying no to the veil? Because that’s got some weird kind of problematic symbolism about it.

‘The fantasy is just so seductive. But then I’m worried I would suddenly wake up and someone would tell me that I didn’t have any more rights. You just wake up to some priest at the end of your bed, like, it’s all over.’

She added she’s not ruling out the idea entirely and is enjoying the engagement period.

‘You can’t cheat the process,’ she said. ‘People rush through engagement. I’m like, no, be engaged! Work things out. It’s the training, it is the practicing calling each other husband and wife. 

‘It is looking down at the ring finger and being like, okay, this is the tradition that is potentially going to come with this first yes.’

Zawe, who welcomed her first child with Tom three years ago and is due to give birth to their second any day now, added that their unusual approach to labels had ruffled some feathers

Zawe, who once played the bride in a music video for Paul Heaton of The Beautiful South, said that she struggles with the idea of saying vows herself.

‘I actually really struggle to say very meaningful things in public as a person in a way that I don’t struggle with as an actor,’ she admitted. 

‘I find it quite hard to be looked at and observed doing intimate things. I find that very difficult.’

She added she was engrossed by Meghan Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. 

‘I have never been more invested in a wedding in my life. I was so into it,’ she said. ‘I filmed me and my best friend watching it like a Gogglebox episode. 

‘I wore a Union Jack T-shirt – there is a little bit of black in this Union Jack today, and I’m going to embrace this.’