Alex Kingston was awarded eighth place in Strictly Come Dancing last year with her professional partner Johannes Radebe.
Inside Alex Kingston’s life from famous ex-husband to Strictly co-star dig(Image: BBC)
Alex Kingston admits she felt “worthless” after her high-profile divorce from a Hollywood icon.
Saturday Kitchen Live returns today, Saturday, March 14, on BBC One with presenter Matt Tebbutt joined by this week’s special guest Alex Kingston, famed for ER, Doctor Who and more recently Strictly Come Dancing.
As the 63-year-old returns to our screens this weekend, here’s an insight into the life of the fan-favourite actress.
Hollywood marriage
Alex Kingston was married to none other than Schindler’s List and Harry Potter legend Ralph Fiennes, after they met as students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1983.
They dated for a decade, married in 1993 but divorced in 1997 after Fiennes had an affair with his Hamlet co-star Francesca Annis who was 18 years his senior.
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After discovering the affair, Alex found it too difficult to stay in London and so started a new life in Los Angeles and joined the cast of ER in 1997.
Previously speaking about the break-up to the Daily Mail, she shared: “I was feeling worthless, that I would never find anyone else as good as my husband, which is ridiculous, but I had so little self-esteem.
“Divorce is awful, but it is also something I don’t regret happening to me because it has shaped who I am now.”
She went on to marry her second husband, German writer Florian Haetel, two years later and had their daughter Salome Violetta Haertel.
Their marriage wasn’t to last either though as they separated in 2009 and divorced four years later.
Two years after her second divorce, the star went on to marry TV producer Jonathan Stamp with the pair still happily together.
Strictly
Alex competed in Strictly Come Dancing 2025 with partner Johannes Radebe and proved to be a fan-favourite with BBC viewers.
However, she didn’t get the best critique from harsh judge Craig Revel-Horwood when he jibed that Alex looked like she was having a “midlife crisis” during her Halloween Week salsa routine to Mousse T Fellow’s Horny.
Reacting to the unexpected comment to Prima Magazine, she said: “When I did the Strictly Halloween ‘Horny’ number, I wasn’t fully aware of the scathing critique Craig had given me about looking like a woman who is having a midlife crisis.
“I didn’t realise that he was saying it or know about the follow-through in terms of people saying, ‘That’s just outrageous, how dare you say something like that?’
“It was a little mean-spirited for Craig to say that and also I just felt like it’s exactly the opposite of what I’m trying to advocate.
“It’s like, no, if you want to dance and swing a devil’s tail around and you’re in your 90s, do it. I mean, this is your life. So live it!”
Health scare
Alex was diagnosed with and treated for uterine cancer in 2024 and, after a hysterectomy and radiation, she is now in remission.
The star initially dismissed symptoms including boating as a sign of aging but suffered a “shocking” haemorrhage while on stage at Chichester Festival Theatre.
It was after this incident that Alex was given the unexpected diagnosis, telling the BBC: “I never went down the cancer road in my head.
“It was a shock, because I have a very positive outlook on life in general.
“Even though my body was telling me there was something very seriously wrong.”
Alex added that it was this experience in 2024 that pushed her to say yes to Strictly Come Dancing the following year as “life is too short”.
Alex appears on Saturday Kitchen on BBC One on March 14 at 10am