Sophie Turner has made a living playing memorable characters in “Game of Thrones” and “Dark Phoenix,” among other screen projects. But the role the she’s missed most? Being a London resident.
“It felt my life was on pause until I returned to England,” Turner told Harper’s Bazaar in her first interview since finalizing her divorce from singer Joe Jonas last month. “I just never really feel like myself when I’m not in London, with my friends and family.”
The 28-year-old actor got candid about the next phase of her career, motherhood and the factors that led to her U.K. homecoming following a contentious split with the “Cake by the Ocean” pop star last year. In September 2023, Jonas filed to divorce Turner, stating in legal documents that their marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
The divorce was a mutual decision, but the custody battle over their two young daughters took a litigious turn. Turner sued her ex-husband for allegedly unlawfully keeping their two daughters in the U.S. but, months later, asked a judge to dismiss the case. Amid a “legal process right now where I can’t really say much,” Turner told the magazine the separation “was incredibly sad.”
“We had a beautiful relationship and it was hard,” she said.
Turner married Jonas, one-third of the Jonas Brothers, in 2019 and lived in Los Angeles before moving to Miami. “I was away for so long,” she said, adding she felt she missed out on major milestones for both herself and friends. For example, Turner grieved that a close friend said they never got to touch the actor’s baby bump when she was pregnant. She welcomed her first daughter in 2020, then her second two years later.
Turner said she sought out British shops in new cities she visited with Jonas and would “stock up on a month’s worth of chocolate.” She said she was also at odds with the state of U.S. politics including the reversal of Roe vs. Wade and rampant gun violence. After the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in 2022, Turner said it was “time to get the f— out.”
The Emmy-nominated actor, now back in London and dating British aristocrat Peregrine Pearson, also shared that motherhood had helped her shed her “depressed and anxious” side.
“I think I live my life for them,” she said of her children, adding that she wants them to see her doing well professionally and socially.
Turner currently stars as diamond thief Joan Hannington in the ITV1 series “Joan,” wrapped production for the thriller “Trust” and is even circling the lead role of Lara Croft in Amazon’s “Tomb Raider” live-action series, according to Deadline. Harper’s Bazaar also named Turner one of its 2024 Women of the Year.
“I’ll come back and say, ‘This is why Mummy was away,’” she said, painting a picture of the holidays with her kids. “It’s because she’s doing this for you, so Father Christmas can come with a big bundle of presents.”