Any fan of quality film and television will be familiar with the name Fiona Shaw. Fiona, 63, is a legendary Irish actress, known for appearances in the likes of True Blood, Killing Eve and the Harry Potter film series.
Given Fiona’s popularity on our screens , she has amassed a large and dedicated fan base who love to learn more about her life. To start at the beginning of her life, Fiona was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1958 to a physicist mother and a surgeon father.
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Although Fiona originally studied philosophy at university, she later attended the prestigious RADA drama school before skyrocketing onto the theatre scene. After catching eyes with a number of roles, Fiona made the leap to Hollywood when she was 28 years old, but was surprised by what she was told in an audition there.
“I got to Hollywood and they said: ‘You’re very old.’ I remember thinking, ‘Shit, that’s bad.’,” she told The Guardian . “I think maybe I also thought film was something to do with being pretty. I mightn’t have been wrong, either. I didn’t want to go to that party where I wouldn’t be picked.”
When it comes to matters of the heart, Fiona has been married to the well known Sri Lankan economist Sonali Deraniyagala since 2018. In an interview with The Daily Express , Fiona spoke about initiating the meeting after reading Sonali's book Wave.
Sonali's memoir detailed the tragic loss of her husband, children and parents during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which Fiona was so moved by she knew instantly that she wanted to speak with her: “I was so surprised she was that person, not the person in the book. We spent half an hour chatting. And when I left I thought, ‘I have just met life’.
Fiona went on to describe their relationship as a “beautiful thing”. She told Good Housekeeping: “'I’m married to a very unusual person, but maybe it took a very unusual person to be willing to marry me.”
She added: “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.
“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.”
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Before Fiona met Sonali, she was in a relationship with the English-born American actress Saffron Burrows for three years, from 2002 to 2005. Saffron is a Hollywood star, known for appearing in a number of blockbusters, including Deep Blue Sea and Troy.
In 2019, Fiona opened up to the Big Issue about her experience coming out, stating that coming to terms with her sexuality led to “self-hatred”. The Killing Eve actress said: “I wasn’t in any way gay until I was. One goes on developing.
“As a teenager, I was very modest in my romantic life. I had this wonderful boyfriend, then another, then later I became gay. It was a shock. I was full of self-hatred and thought I would come back into the fold shortly. But I just didn’t.”
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