Helena Bonham Carter Reflects on Painful 'Divorce' from Tim Burton

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Actress Helena Bonham Carter recently spoke about her separation from filmmaker Tim Burton, whom she was with for over a decade before their split in 2014. Although they were never married, Bonham Carter referred to the breakup as a "divorce" in a conversation with podcast host Julia Samuel.

She explained that the process was "painful" and ongoing, stating that "it never ends" even after a divorce. Bonham Carter and Burton have two children together, Billy and Nell, and the actress emphasized that the relationship must change in order to co-parent effectively.

“I went through a very painful divorce,” she told podcast host Julia Samuel. “It was a long-lasting thing. That’s the other thing, it’s not that finite. It never ends. Even if you divorce somebody, it’s a kind of marriage if you have children with them.

The relationship has to change”. “Part of the grieving is letting go and it takes a longer time than people expect,” she added.

Bonham Carter also spoke about the difficulties of going through a breakup

She described herself as being in a state of "mourning" and "reconstruction" following the end of the relationship.

“I kept on wanting to say, ‘I want to be in black,” Bonham Carter added. “I wanted to wear something to indicate to people that I’m not my normal self”. “I’m in mourning, and I’m under reconstruction,” she said, before realising that there should be a “uniform for mourning” because it indicates to others “that you’re not yourself and nor should you be yourself”.

Since her split from Burton, Bonham Carter has moved on and is currently in a relationship with art historian Rye Dag Holmboe, who is 21 years her junior. In an interview with The Times, she joked about the attention their age difference has received, saying that while she gets older, the tabloids continue to report Holmboe's age as 33.

“I like that it’s constantly news that he’s younger than me,” she joked in an interview with The Times published in November. “And what’s hilarious is that I keep getting older, but to the tabloids he remains 33.

He’s almost like Benjamin Button”. The couple even playfully reference the age gap themselves, with Bonham Carter saying that she "siphons off" Holmboe's youth at night due to his declining eyesight.