Getty Phoebe Waller-Bridge (L) and Martin McDonagh attend the 34th Annual Television Critics Association Awards during the 2018 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 4, 2018.
Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live on October 5. It’s been a big year for the actress and writer, who won three 2019 Primetime Emmys for Fleabag.
Considering her quick rise to stardom and prolific career as an actress and writer leading top Hollywood projects, it is not surprising that fans are curious about her personal life. Tie in the fact that Fleabag never holds back when talking about or depicting Waller-Bridge’s character’s on-screen sexuality and many are curious about Waller-Bridge’s own romance, outside of the show. Since 2018, she has been linked to her 49-year-old boyfriend Martin McDonagh.
Here’s what you need to know about Pheobe Waller-Bridge’s boyfriend, Martin McDonagh:
1. He Is an Award-Winning Screenwriter & Playwright
Filmmaker Martin McDonagh, winner of the awards for Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) for ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,’attends the Official Viewing and After Party of The Golden Globe Awards bosted by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
McDonagh, like Waller-Bridge, has been honored for his work as a writer. He is best known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for which he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Motion Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2018; in 2009, he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for In Bruges. He won the 2006 Oscar for Best Short Film for his film Six Shooter.
He has won a number of notable awards for his original plays. In 2003, he won an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy for his play “The Lieutenant of Inishmore;” he won the award again in 2004 for “The Pillowman.” He has also been nominated for two Tony Awards, for “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” and “The Lonesome West.”
2. Waller-Bridge Was an Admirer of His Work Long Before They Dated
She told The Guardian “It was the first play I saw that made me think theatre can be really exciting. Sometimes you need to see something like that – a piece of work that wakes you up, that makes you go, ‘Yes, of course that can be done’ and gives your imagination permission to go 17 million other places. I felt like that about his work.”
According to The New York Times, Waller-Bridge has admitted that she’s less inclined to show drafts of her writing work to McDonagh.
Their recent individual accomplishments make them quite the successful couple today. A source told New York Post that when the two arrived at the post-Emmy Awards Amazon party, “Everyone burst into applause. That doesn’t happen in this town. In that moment, she and [playwright and movie director ] Martin McDonagh became a power couple. Everyone from Netflix to the big studios is chasing both of them.”
3. He Is Waller-Bridge’s First Public Relationship Since Her 2017 Divorce
Martin McDonagh (L) and Phoebe Waller Bridge attend the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.
From 2014 until 2018, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was married to Conor Woodman; they had started dating in 2012. At the end of 2017, People Magazine reported that a source informed them “they’ve been separated for a little while now,” and were filing for divorce. Woodman is a documentary filmmaker.
According to Elle , Waller-Bridge was first spotted with McDonagh at a screening of his film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
4. He Is From London, England
Although Ireland is the setting for many of his plays, McDonagh is actually from London, England. He is considered Anglo-Irish and has dual citizenship in both Ireland and England due to his Irish parents, but has never lived in Ireland on a full-time basis.
Phoebe, like McDonagh, was born and raised in London. The two are said to be living there together, and Waller-Bridge is currently performing her one-woman show Fleabag in London’s West End.
5. He Found the Setting for ‘In Bruges’ After a Date Stood Him Up
Director Martin McDonagh attends Meet the Filmmaker: Martin McDonagh, “Seven Psychopaths”>> at the Apple Store Soho on October 8, 2012 in New York City.
In an interview with GQ, McDonagh revealed that his inspiration for his Oscar-nominated film In Bruges came from a failed date. He said “I went to Bruges for a weekend away from London. I was supposed to be meeting a girl there the next day. It was a tentative arrangement. From the moment I saw the town, I thought this place is just so cinematic, so gorgeous. Every corner seemed to offer a new image. I checked in to the same hotel – the same room, actually – that the boys share, overlooking the canal. I started walking around the centre. I had a few beers. Then she phoned and said she couldn’t come.”
Continuing the story, he added “I’d been checking out every museum, every tiny little square, to show her once she arrived. And when she didn’t come, I found myself doing the same thing the next day. Bruges is very small, as you know. There wasn’t much else to do but wander. And so,” McDonagh continues, “I wandered. Eventually I began getting just very slightly bored, wonderful as Bruges is. That was when the idea for the film started coming to me. You have this character in a place that is stunning, and yet he’s bored. He’s hating it. And yet he can’t leave. He’s forced to stay. But why?”