Olivia Colman’s recent role has had her reflecting on her own identity. While discussing Sophie Hyde’s forthcoming drama, Jimpa, in which Olivia’s character travels to Amsterdam with her nonbinary teenager to visit her gay father, the Oscar winner shared that she’s “always felt sort of nonbinary” and referred to herself as “a gay man” in her long-term marriage.
“Throughout my whole life, I’ve had arguments with people where I’ve always felt sort of nonbinary,” the star told online publication Them in a new interview when asked about being part of queer stories across her long-running career. She admitted that she’s “never felt massively feminine in my being female.”
She continued: “I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, “Yeah, I get that.”
“So I do feel at home and at ease. I feel like I have a foot in various camps. I know many people who do. I don’t really spend an awful lot of time with people who are very staunchly heterosexual…. The men I know and love are very in touch with all sides of themselves.”
Olivia has been married to screenwriter and producer Ed Sinclair, who she’s also collaborated with on the miniseries Landscapers, the 2024 comedy film Wicked Little Letters, and most recently The Roses, since 2001.
Inside her 24-year marriage
The Favourite star previously revealed it was love at first sight for her when she met her husband Ed at university. Like his wife, Ed is also in the film industry, working as an actor and writer.
“There’s the bloke I’m going to marry,” Olivia once told The Telegraph. “My husband and I were very lucky. We met when we had nothing and we loved each other then. So we were all right.”
“We were 20 and he was also an actor. If you meet at that age, then you’re fine. For me, it was thunderbolts straight away.”
The pair tied the knot in August 2001, celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary last year. The couple, who keep their private life relatively out of the spotlight, share two rarely-seen sons, Hal and Finn, and a younger daughter who was reportedly born around 2015.
Olivia’s memorable roles
In 2019, Olivia took home the coveted Best Actress Oscar award for her performance as Queen Anne in the 18th-century drama film, The Favourite. The star has had an illustrious TV and film career for more than two decades, with memorable performances in the ITV series Broadchurch, Fleabag, and The Night Manager, to name a few.
Along with playing Queen Anne, Olivia famously portrayed another royal on screen: Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. She starred as the late monarch in seasons three and four of the award-winning Netflix series.
© Photo: RexSpeaking to HELLO! ahead of the show’s third season in 2019, Olivia said of Queen Elizabeth: “Having never really considered what I thought of her and now having played her, I think she is extraordinary. She said she would serve her country and that is what she has done – and she is now in her 90s and still serving her country. I think she is amazing. I would have definitely retired by now!”
At the time, the star shared she was moved when she saw the Queen wipe away a tear at the Remembrance Day service that year. “I don’t blame her for shedding a tear,” Olivia told us.
“A lot of the people she remembers from that time have been dead a very long time, so it must be a very emotional day for her – and she has never failed to be there at the Cenotaph. We have had ridiculous extremes in this country over the past few years – as we can all see – and there is something about them being there, that I feel has kept it all from going awry. Perhaps that is because I have just fallen in love with the Queen, but it feels that way to me.”
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