Rupert Everett appears on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories this week and drops a few bombshells about his love life – revealing a six-year affair with Paula Yates while she was married to Bob Geldof.
Yes, we’re as surprised as you!
The gay actor also remembers the impact the AIDs epidemic had on his promiscuous sex life in the 70s and 80s.
Here’s everything you need to know about the actor formerly known as Madonna’s best friend.
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Rupert Everett love life: Is he gay?
Rupert is an openly gay man, who has often spoken about the barriers that exist for ‘out’ gay actors in Hollywood.
Reflecting on the impact of his sexuality on his big screen career, he has said: “It limited it and made it as well.
“Because I had that really great ‘gay’ career for a bit there. So I think it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.”
In his personal life, Rupert has admitted to living a promiscuous life as a young actor in London and L.A.
But it was often his friendships with high-profile women – like Madonna – that grabbed the headlines.
Discussing having relationships with men as well as women, Rupert previously said: “I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs, but then I am mystified by most of my relationships.”
In 2009, Rupert told The Observer that he wished he had never revealed his sexuality, as he feels that it hurt his career.
He said: “The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the film business.
“It just doesn’t work and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point.”
Rupert Everett love life: Rupert and Paula Yates affair
Rupert confesses to having a six-year affair with Paula Yates behind her husband Bob Geldof’s back.
Chatting to Piers, Rupert admits he felt “no guilt” over the relationship.
Rupert tells Piers that he loved the TV presenter Paula – who died in 2000 from a heroin overdose.
He says: “I think I was in love with her. I adored her.”
When Piers asks Rupert “how did you square off Bob in all this?”, Rupert admits he “just ignored him”.
Rupert says the Live Aid organiser and The Boomtown Rats frontman knew about the affair.
When Piers asks if he felt guilty, Rupert adds: “I don’t know. I think it would be for her to feel guilty, not me.”
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Madonna feud
Rupert and Madonna were good friends for a time.
The pair worked together on the 2000 movie The Next Best Thing, in which he played her gay best friend. Sadly the film was considered a flop.
Rupert also sang backing vocals on her single American Pie.
However, the pair are no longer pally.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph’s Stellar magazine, he said: “We don’t see each other anymore. I do miss it.
“She’s an amazing person and that part of my life was incredibly exciting.
“To be doing a film with her and to be a friend of hers and to have been such a fan of hers. But the fallout from the movie’s failure was gigantic for me, like an outer-space explosion.”
Rupert has also revealed that Madonna did not like being written about in his autobiography Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins in which he included intimate details about Madge’s relationship with her ex Sean Penn.
He says: “She really didn’t like [the book]. I think it is very affectionate, and certainly with her I was very careful to only write things that were.
“But she felt it was an infringement of privacy… Goddesses like that are obsessed with their public image and want to control everything about it, so if anyone is to tell anyone anything about her it’s got to be her.”
He went one step further and describes Madonna as a “screechy barmaid”.
Rupert and other fall outs
Rupert is notoriously outspoken, and Madonna isn’t the only person he may have offended.
In recent years, the actor took a pop at Hugh Grant, accusing him of selling out for commercial films.
Rupert said: “If I wasn’t gay I would be doing what Hugh Grant does, I suppose.
“Hugh is obviously the premier English commercial actor.
“And even though I can see at development stage that some of his projects are great – like Music and Lyrics, it was a hopeless film.
“They rarely come out all that great.”
Ouch!
Rupert also had a real life spat with Life Stories presenter Piers Morgan.
The pair previously clashed on a Comic Relief edition of The Apprentice back in 2007, which Rupert departed after a single day of filming.
Rupert later hit out at Piers in an interview with The Guardian, refering to him as a “killer” and “slobby and elephantine”.
They buried the hatchet on Good Morning Britain last year.
What is Rupert Everett famous for?
Rupert is famous for his work in TV, film and theatre.
Famously, he put in an award-winning performance in My Best Friend’s Wedding in 1997, playing the gay friend of Julia Roberts’ character.
Sadly, this was followed by the turkey that was The Next Best Thing with Madonna in 2000.
He’s been acting for nearly 40 decades, and first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell’s play and subsequent film Another Country in 1984.
His role as a gay pupil at an English public school in the 30s earned him his first BAFTA award nomination.
He received a second BAFTA nomination and his first Golden Globe nomination for his role in My Best Friend’s Wedding, followed by a second Golden Globe nomination for An Ideal Husband in 1999.
He’s also starred in 1994’s Cemetery Man, The Madness of King George in 1994, Shakespeare in Love in 1998, The Importance of Being Earnest in 2002 and the 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Rupert has written several books, and has contributed to Vanity Fair magazine.
How old is Rupert Everett?
Rupert James Hector Everett was born on May 29 1959 in Norfolk.
He is currently 61 years old.
Rupert Everett love life: Is he married?
Rupert Everett is not married.
He currently lives with his long-term boyfriend Henrique, a Brazilian accountant, in London’s Belgravia.
The pair have been together for more than a decade.
In a recent interview, Rupert said that he’d like to get married after being in a relationship for 11 years.
He said: “Actually, I wouldn’t mind getting married now.
“Yes. I’d marry my boyfriend.”
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Rupert Everett
Good Morning Britain motormouth Piers chats to actor and director Rupert Everett in the latest Life Stories.
Rupert reflects on his bitchy comments towards other co-stars, including Madonna and Julia Roberts.
He also talks about the promiscuous life he led in the 70s and 80s, and the impact of the HIV/Aids crisis.
The My Best Friend’s Wedding star also discusses his romantic relationships with women, including TV presenter Paula Yates.
In the episode, Rupert reveals how he could have died after going to the same pub as serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
The actor reveals he went to the same bar as the murderer – who killed at least 12 homeless or gay men and boys between 1978 and 1983.
In addition, Rupert also discusses his up and down relationship with Colin Firth – including when Colin “stuck his tongue down Rupert’s throat”.
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories airs on Thursday March 04 2021 at 9pm on ITV1.
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