‘It took a very unusual person to be willing to marry me’: Killing Eve star Fiona Shaw details her home life with her wife and how the hit show has helped to change the way women are portrayed on screen
They have been happily married since 2018.
And Fiona Show spoke candidly about her marriage with wife Dr. Sonali Deraniyagala in an interview with Good Housekeeping on Wednesday, in which she also discussed her hit show Killing Eve.
The actress, 61, claimed it ‘took a very unusual person’ to marry her, as she detailed how the tragic loss of Sonali’s husband, children and parents during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 made them learn to appreciate life.
‘It took a very unusual person to be willing to marry me’: Killing Eve star Fiona Shaw detailed her home life with her wife Dr. Sonali Deraniyagala on Wednesday
‘I’m married to a very unusual person, but maybe it took a very unusual person to be willing to marry me,’ she said of her home life.
‘Sonali’s children, parents and husband were all killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, and I’m very cognisant of that.
‘Its sorrow doesn’t dominate our life, but it definitely defines it. I understand the value of things by being with Sonali.
Moving: Fiona said the loss of Sonali’s husband, children and parents during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 made them learn to appreciate life
‘She lives knowing that at any moment the world could end because she lost her world. It has brought me into land, I suppose, about lots of things; a lack of arbitrariness about life,’ she concluded.
Fiona and Sonali have been married since 2018, and the Sri Lankan author wrote a memoir about losing her loved ones called Wave, which detailed her grief.
The Harry Potter star portrays MI6 agent Carolyn Martens opposite Sandra Oh’s Eve in Killing Eve, and went on to gush about being part of the female-led show.
Candid: The pair have been married since 2018, and she said: ‘Its sorrow doesn’t dominate our life, but it definitely defines it. I understand the value of things by being with Sonali’
Discussing how women were made to play a more subdued role in the past she explained: ‘Why weren’t they making series about this sort of stuff 20 years ago when I was in my late 30s? I would have enjoyed them.
‘They weren’t because there was a feeling that you had to have the male storyteller and that the woman was always an addendum or, going right back to Shakespeare, always resolving her story in a domestic happiness.
‘Women are often portrayed as virtuous, so it’s wonderful to not always be good. I think Killing Eve has changed the landscape and the game.’
Current role: The Harry Potter star portrays MI6 agent Carolyn Martens opposite Sandra Oh’s Eve in Killing Eve, and went on to gush about being part of the female-led show (pictured)
Exciting: Discussing how Killing Eve has changed how women are portrayed on screen, she explained: ‘Women are often portrayed as virtuous, so it’s wonderful to not always be good’
Fiona went on to heap praise on Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a ‘phenomenal’ writer, who created Killing Eve and also Fleabag which the actress made an appearance in.
‘Her energy is high and her focus is sharp, so you would just do anything for her,’ Fiona said of the award-winning screenwriter.
Read the full Fiona Shaw interview in the June issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale the 29th April. It is available in all supermarkets and online at MagsDirect.
For more: Read the full interview in the June issue of Good Housekeeping, out April 29th