NEED TO KNOW
- Zawe Ashton clarified whether she and partner Tom Hiddleston were married on a recent episode of the Miss Me? podcast after previously referring to him as her husband in an interview
- She shared that they “call each other husband and wife” in private, though they still have not yet tied the knot and are enjoying their engagement
- Ashton and Hiddleston got engaged in 2022 and welcomed a son together in October of that year
Zawe Ashton is addressing speculation about her marital status with Tom Hiddleston.
The Marvels actress, 41, clarified in the latest episode of Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver’s Miss Me? podcast that she and the Loki actor have not yet tied the knot, despite having previously referred to him as her husband in an interview.
“We’ve been engaged for a long time and there are, I think there have been publications that have named us husband and wife already,” she shared, adding that it led to some awkward interactions with some loved ones.
“…There’s some toxic paragraphs that were thrown my way like, ‘Okay, no invite, whatever.’ It’s like, ‘No, no, no, it didn’t happen.’ We didn’t do it in secret. It’s just like a semantic thing,” she explained.
She noted that in private, she and Hiddleston “call each other husband and wife” because it didn’t “feel right” to call each other “boyfriend” and “girlfriend,” especially when they were expecting their second child together. She further explained that she felt the engagement period was a “training ground” of sorts for their marriage.
“It is the practicing [of] calling each other husband and wife. It is looking down at the ring finger and being like, ‘Okay, this is the tradition that is potentially gonna come with this first yes,’ ” she explained.
“So you do already say, ‘My husband.’ That’s quite nice,” podcast host Oliver chimed in at one point. “But you might have to actually have a wedding soon.”
“Yeah. But it’s also pissing off people who are actually marrying,” Ashton replied. “So like, you realize that’s just not real yet. And so, yeah.”
However, the actress noted that she and Hiddleston have “thought about it” in “different ways,” and admitted that she finds the “reality of marriage” a “little bit more scary” than the thought of a wedding. As for now, she said she is focusing on enjoying her engagement.
“People kind of rush through engagement, and I’m like, ‘Engagement is really useful.’ Why is everyone like, ‘I’m getting engaged to get married?’ ” Ashton shared.
“Be engaged. Work things out,” she continued. “Because that’s like a big— that’s a big yes that opens up a whole new tapestry of understanding between you, between you and each other’s families, because you are saying yes to each other’s [families].”
“So, I’ve loved engagement, because you’re learning,” she added. “You’re like, ‘What is this yes gonna be later?’ This is like a notch up from just being partners, boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Ashton and Hiddleston first met while co-starring in a 2019 revival of Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal in London, followed by a run on Broadway in New York City. PEOPLE confirmed in 2022 that the couple had gotten engaged.
In June of that year, Ashton revealed that she was pregnant and expecting her first baby with Hiddleston while attending a New York City screening of her film Mr. Malcolm’s List. Months later, in October, Us Weekly reported that the baby had arrived.
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