Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton: Actress Zawe Ashton is setting the record straight about her relationship status with fellow actor Tom Hiddleston. Following comments she made in a June interview where she referred to Hiddleston as her “husband,” speculation swirled that the couple had secretly married. Ashton has now clarified that this isn’t the case.
credit: Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton instagram
Speaking on Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver’s “Miss Me?” podcast, the 41-year-old star of “The Marvels” confirmed she and the “Loki” actor are still engaged, not married.
“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,” Ashton shared. She explained this led to awkward moments with friends and family who thought they’d been left out of a wedding.
“…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 elaborated.
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Ashton revealed that in private, she and Hiddleston do call each other “husband” and “wife” because terms like “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” no longer felt right, particularly as they are expecting their second child together. She views their engagement period as valuable preparation for 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.
Podcast host Miquita Oliver noted, “So you do already say, ‘My husband.’ That’s quite nice… But you might have to actually have a wedding soon.”
“Yeah. But it’s also pissing off people who are actually marrying,” Ashton replied with a laugh. “So like, you realize that’s just not real yet.”
While confirming they have “thought about” marriage “in different ways,” Ashton admitted she finds the “reality of marriage” a “little bit more scary” than the idea of a wedding itself. For now, she’s focused on appreciating their 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?’” she questioned. “Be engaged. Work things out… You’re learning. You’re like, ‘What is this yes gonna be later?’ This is like a notch up from just being partners.”
Ashton and Hiddleston first met while starring in a 2019 London revival of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal,” which later moved to Broadway. their engagement in 2022. That June, Ashton revealed she was pregnant with their first child. Us Weekly reported the baby’s arrival later that October. The couple is now expecting their second child.