Tim and Helena at the Book of Mormon Gala for Red Nose Day, March 2013.
Jonathan Hordle/ShutterstockEight years later Helena Bonham Carter et Tim Burton announced their separation Crown alum reflects on the “painful” split.
“I went through a very painful divorce,” Bonham Carter, 56, said on the Tuesday, Dec. 13 episode of the “Therapy Works” podcast. “It was something lasting. It’s the other thing, it’s not so finished. It never ends. Even if you divorce someone, it is a kind of marriage if you have children with them. The relationship must change. It is a very complicated thing how to share the children.
The England native and Burton, 64, dated from 2001 to 2014 and often teamed up on screen. Although the couple never legally married, they eventually expanded their family with the arrival of son Billy, 19, and daughter Nell, 15, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. The former couple announced in December 2014 that they had called it quits.
“Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter amicably parted ways earlier this year and have continued to be friends and co-parent their children,” said the Harry Potter the actress’ rep said We Weekly at the time. “We ask that you respect their privacy and that of their children during this time.”
Following their split, Bonham Carter was candid about the heartbreak of ending a longtime relationship.
“I wanted to wear something to let people know that I’m not myself,” she recalled Tuesday, noting that she wanted to don all-black ensembles. “I am in mourning and I am in reconstruction. … We should bring back a mourning uniform because it tells people that you’re not yourself and you shouldn’t be yourself either.
Carter posing for a publicity photocall for the launch of ITVX, November 2022.
ITV/Matt Frost/ShutterstockShe added: “I think we still have a hard time admitting our vulnerability and there is a judgment about it that we should be strong. We must honor and respect the loss. We have to press pause.
Despite the end of their romance, the Sweeney Todd the star still thinks fondly of her former partner.
“I could write a thesis on what happened and it’s gripping when a relationship breaks down, but I think we’re getting through this, and I think we’ll still have something very valuable,” Bonham wrote. Carter in a November. 2015 trial for Rouge magazine. “Our relationship has always been somewhat special, and I think it will always remain special.”
The Ocean 8 The actress continued at the time: “We found each other. And really, the mark of a successful relationship shouldn’t be that you’re there forever after. Sometimes you’re not meant to be together forever. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that it was. But it was a gift, a huge gift. We gave each other children and much more.