‘It looks like a break for some time’: Damian Lewis will be taking a break from acting to look after his children following the death of wife Helen McCrory last year
Damian Lewis will take a break from work to focus on his father’s duties.
The Billions star, 51, is taking a break from acting while looking after his two teenage children – Manon, 15, and Gulliver, 14 – after their mother (and wife) Helen McCrory died last year.
He filmed a big-budget thriller A Spy Among Friends based on the Kim Philby story late last year, but hasn’t taken on any new roles since.
‘It looks like a hiatus for a while’: Damian Lewis will be taking a break from acting to look after his children following the death of his wife Helen McCrory (pictured with Manon, 15, and Gulliver, 14, in year 2018)
A friend told the Chron: “He has worked amazingly hard to look after the children and is doing so without any help. He’s there for pickup every day. His priority is to be with them and he’s done everything Helen has done and he’s doing it so well.
“He’s not going to put her in boarding school or anything, so it looks like he’ll be taking a break from acting for a while.
“There’s been a bit of work to do in America lately and he brought the kids with him so they were on holiday – although of course they were all ill with Covid.”
Damian himself said last October that he plans to remain in London for the foreseeable future “for obvious reasons”.
Tragic: Helen died aged 52 after a battle with cancer in April last year (pictured 2019)
He wants to release a music album next year; and played a gig in London last week. Many of the songs were about Helen, who died in April last year at the age of 52 after a battle with cancer.
Lewis was visibly emotional on stage, and once joked that he “shouldn’t have worn mascara.”
A friend said: “He still wears his wedding ring and all the songs were about Helen. No one could have grieved more than he did.’
He remains very close to Helen’s parents Iain and Ann and consulted them before going public with his new girlfriend, musician Alison Mosshart. Iain and Ann were in the audience at London’s Omeara when Lewis played there.
He and The Kills’ Mosshart are said to have met through mutual friends and went public at a fundraiser for the National Gallery in July. She was not seen in the audience at his performance.
A Spy Among Friends is due out on new ITV streaming service ITVX in November or December.
New love: He remains very close to Helen’s parents Iain and Ann and consulted them before going public with his new girlfriend, musician Alison Mosshart (pictured in July 2022)