Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery has confirmed the exciting news that she’s engaged to producer Jasper Waller-Bridge in a traditional announcement.
Michelle Dockery, best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley on period drama Downton Abbey, is engaged to TV and film producer Jasper Waller-Bridge.
Michelle revealed the lovely news with a very traditional engagement announcement shared in the Times. The statement read, "The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King's Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex."
Jasper is the younger brother of Fleabag’s Pheobe Waller-Bridge and is believed to have first met Michelle in 2019. The pair made their first public appearance together at the Rome Film Festival.
This is Michelle’s second engagement and comes six years after she mourned the loss of her first fiancé John Dineen. John passed away in 2015 after a battle with a rare form of cancer.
In 2017, the actress told the Guardian that the similarities in Downtown’s storyline, where her on-screen husband Matthew Crawley died, were very difficult for her.
Speaking about her loss, she said, "I don’t have the vocabulary to describe what it felt like. And what it still feels like."
She also made a heartbreaking confession that she sees herself as a widow, saying, "Oh, I refer to myself as a widow, yes. We were engaged and married at heart, and so I do consider myself a widow. That’s the first time I’ve said that, and it’s a bit of a relief to say so."
Michelle is set to return to Downton Abbey (filmed at Highclere Castle) in the series second feature-length film, ‘Downtown Abbey: A New Era’.
Joining Lady Mary on screen, fans will see Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley, who fans claim is the real heroine of the show) Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) all reprising their iconic roles, and many more fan favourites - not to mention some new faces!
Congratulations Michelle and Jasper!
