NEED TO KNOW
- Award-winning actress Keira Knightley has been married to her husband, James Righton, since 2013
- The couple met two years prior at a dinner party
- Now, Knightley and Righton share two daughters
Keira Knightley may be known for her on-screen relationships (think: Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice), but her off-screen love story is just as sweet.
The two-time Oscar nominee first connected with her musician husband, James Righton, in 2011. Like Knightley, Righton is British-born and has an accomplished career in show business.
The couple married in 2013 and now share two children, daughters Edie and Delilah. While the Knightley-Righton family prefers to live privately, the acclaimed actress told Elle in 2015, “the love thing is astonishing,” in reference to her and Righton’s daughters. “It’s a very primal, primal love. That’s quite extraordinary.”
In 2023, Knightley and Righton celebrated a major relationship milestone: their 10-year wedding anniversary. On The Drew Barrymore Show, Knightley joked that it was “a miracle” to have made it this far.
So, who is Keira Knightley’s husband? Here’s everything to know about James Righton and his relationship with the actress.
He’s a musician
Righton was born on Aug. 25, 1983, in Warwickshire, England. After spending his early life making music, around 2005, he helped form the rave band Klaxons. While the group made waves in the U.K. music scene, Righton told the New York Post in 2017 that his future wife had “never heard of us” when they met.
Why? At that time, Knightley wasn’t spending much time at home. “Keira was in America when we were having our moment in the sun in the U.K., so she was oblivious,” he said. But she eventually became a fan, of course. “She came to loads of gigs and loved ‘Surfing the Void,’ ” Righton added.
After the band separated in 2015, Righton released his debut solo studio album, The Performer, with DeeWee Records.
One song on the album shares a name with Righton and Knightley’s elder daughter, “Edie.”
He works in film, too
While Klaxons disbanded in 2015, Righton is still making music — but now primarily for film and TV.
Some of his recent work includes scoring the 2023 comedy I’ll Be Right There, Netflix’s Untold: The Liver King and the British feature film, Just Sing.
He met Knightley in 2011
Righton first met the woman who would soon become his wife in 2011 through a friend.
Knightley said on The Drew Barrymore Show that she and Righton’s “first proper date” was one filled with adventure just outside of London. “He very sweetly decided to take me to a theme park” with “amazing rollercoasters,” she recounted.
The catch? “He didn’t tell me that he’s completely terrified — like, completely,” Knightley recalled. “So he was so white and shaking and sweating, and we actually have a picture from our first date on the massive rollercoaster. And I’m just like — the happiness, like, ‘This is the most amazing thing!’ and he literally looks like he’s going to die.”
Knightley joked, “And he’s looked like that ever since.”
The pair married in May 2013
Righton and Knightley tied the knot in Mazan, a small commune in the Provence region of France. A witness previously told PEOPLE that the service was approximately 30 minutes long and performed by the village mayor.
The source shared, “Keira looked beautiful,” and added that “she wore a very pretty, very elegant dress.”
The dress in question was a Chanel frock made of tulle, which Knightley had already worn on multiple occasions. Righton opted for a classic suit with a not-so-classic vibrant blue tie.
Later, the couple also had a second secret ceremony just for friends during which she donned a custom Valentino gown, embellished with pink roses.
“I wore it for the ceremony we had just for our friends, in a wood, because you have to have flowers on a dress in a wood,” the actress told Elle UK in 2014.
He and Knightley share two daughters
Righton and Knightley share two daughters, Edie and Delilah. The duo first became parents in 2015 with the birth of Edie. In 2019, Delilah joined the family.
In an exclusive 2018 interview with PEOPLE, Knightley shared a laughable moment between her husband and their elder daughter — young Edie said the f-word after her dad came just shy of crashing the car with the family inside.
“It was one of those country roads where it’s a blind corner, and suddenly there’s another car coming,” Knightley shared. “The brakes got put on and there wasn’t a crash, but there was a silence just afterwards and this little voice went, ‘Daddy, is that when you say f—?’ ”
“It was very polite,” the actress noted. “Other than that, she has never said any — there’s not been any swear words.”
The Knightley-Righton family lives in the U.K.
Today, Righton and Knightley are raising their young family in the U.K.
There, the couple choose to keep their children out of the public eye. Likewise, Knightley has chosen to only take work that won’t force her to be far from her family. Case in point: her Netflix movie The Woman in Cabin 10 was filmed in London.
“I couldn’t go job to job [abroad] now. It wouldn’t be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn’t want to,” she told The Times in 2024. “I’ve chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I’ve had to take a major step back.”
He’s an extrovert
In conversation with The Times, Knightley joked about her and her husband’s personality differences, calling him the “old extrovert in the house.”
When asked about attending parties for her Chanel partnership (Knightley’s been the face of Coco Mademoiselle since age 21), she explained to The Times, “If James comes, they’re fun. James believes it is his right to have a good time and he will create it anywhere he goes.”
So much so that he encouraged his wife to host a sizable party for her 40th birthday in March 2025, while she would have been happy to go away on vacation.
Knightley also described Righton to The Guardian in 2014 as “the sort of person who will be the brightest light in any room, whereas I’m the one who sits in the corner.” She added, “And he’s much nicer than me.”
Knightley called their 10-year anniversary a “miracle”
In May 2023, Righton and Knightley celebrated a decade of marriage. On The Drew Barrymore Show, Knightley joked with the talk show host, “It’s a miracle!”
“We made it,” she added. “We have two children, and we’ve made it a decade.”
After their big milestone, Knightley addressed her and Righton’s then-11-year marriage with The Times. “It’s good for an actress and a musician, isn’t it?” she joked. “We really annoy each other. But, f—, do we laugh.”
While the pair are happily married, she doesn’t see a world in which they work together professionally. “He tries to get me to clap on things occasionally and apparently I’ve got no timing, and we end up in a big row. It would be awful,” she said.
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