Imelda Staunton shares how she and Jim Carter maintain their marriage alongside acting careers

‘Success is a really tricky word,’ the actor said

Imelda Staunton has opened up about how she and Jim Carter have made their marriage work amid their mutual success as Hollywood actors.

The Harry Potter star, 68, began dating the Downton Abbey actor, 75, when they appeared together in a production of Guys and Dolls at London’s National Theatre in 1982. The pair married a year later and have remained together for over 40 years.

Staunton said the secret to her lengthy marriage has involved making career sacrifices and giving up roles in order to spend more time with her husband, who in turn has given up acting work for her when required.

Speaking to Vogue, Staunton said: “Success is a really tricky word and it should be spelled with a very small S. I think it poisons people. I feel Jim and I have made our lives work as a marriage within this business, and we take our life more seriously than our jobs.”

She continued: “Of course, we both take [the job] very seriously. But you go, what’s the most important thing here? That I play another part? Or that we go on a very nice holiday, or that we have that time in the garden, that we have our life?

“But we can afford to say that – I don’t mean financially, but with the work we’ve done and are lucky enough to still be doing. I think we know how fortunate we are.”

Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton at the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards (Getty Images)

Staunton explained that she and Carter had decided early in their relationship that their careers could not be prioritised over one another. “I think when we got married, we did say, ‘Look, there’s no point if we’re going to be apart,’” she said.

“Early on, Jim did a lot more telly and films than I was doing in the Eighties. If he was going to go to an exotic location, we’d go, ‘Right, well, I can come out that weekend.’ So we made that work. Or there’s two jobs, I can go and do that. Do you need to do that? OK? Lovely.”

Staunton is set to return to the theatre in a production of ‘Hello Dolly!’ at the London Palladium this July (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Staunton is gainfully employed, returning to the theatre in a production of Hello Dolly! at the London Palladium this July. Back in March, the actor also announced that she would be reprising her role as Lady Maud Bagshaw in Downton Abbey’s third and final film.

In the 2019 film Downton Abbey, and its 2022 sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era, Staunton played the verbal sparring partner of Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess of Grantham.

Although the second film grossed $92.7m (£73m) worldwide, The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey likened it to “a dinner party guest that won’t shut up and go home” in a two-star review.