LONDON, April 17 — Idris Elba’s career is on the rise, from his poverty-stricken background in East London’s Canning Town to his latest Hollywood roles in The Jungle Book and Zootopia.
However, the 43-year-old British actor had a turbulent private life, as Sonya Hamlin, his ‘secret’ second wife revealed to the Mail on Sunday in an interview.
Hamlin, an American property lawyer, told the Mail that she and Elba were introduced by a mutual friend in 2006 in Maryland. She said they had “pure chemistry” between them.
He had been married once, to makeup artist Hanne Norgaard, with whom he shares a daughter, Isan. The marriage collapsed when Norgaard got pregnant after the pair moved to New York, where Elba had difficulties finding roles as he had trouble with the American accent.
The actor then landed his breakthrough role in HBO’s The Wire on the same day his daughter was born.
“I didn’t really know who he was. My friend just said he was a really nice guy. He wasn’t a superstar back then. Living in Maryland I was vaguely familiar with The Wire, but I didn’t know who he was,” Hamlin said.
“We met at a crowded gathering with a few other people. But we hit it off. We meshed very well.”
“He’s not shy and neither am I, and we fell very much in love with each other,” she added.
Hamlin said they moved in together after a whirlwind romance and went on “normal dates” and coordinated their outfits, adding that the actor loved eggs and porridge for breakfast, or would make Jamaican food such as aki and saltfish.
The pair got married after jetting off to Las Vegas to watch the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Zab Judah.
“We had talked about marriage before and how we would want to keep it plain and simple. We had been together several months already, and knew it was right,” Hamlin told the Mail, adding that it was a spur of the moment decision to tie the knot.
“We were both excited. It was a mutual decision. As far as we were concerned, we were going to spend the rest of our lives together,” she said, adding that they snuck off to a jewellery store where Elba got her “a beautiful diamond ring.”
Aside from the officiant, the only wedding guest was a complete stranger: Las Vegas estate agent Daniel Krastev, whom they persuaded to serve as a witness.
However, the pressure was intense, according to Hamlin. She was tied to her law practice in Maryland, but her new husband felt the pull of Hollywood.
She also believed that Elba was influenced by friends who felt that he should have a young starlet by his side instead of a property lawyer.
Their marriage ended only six weeks after their whirlwind wedding in Las Vegas.
“It wasn’t easy for either of us,” Hamlin recalled. “We sat down here in Maryland and decided we were going to file. We wavered a couple of times. We were both just sad. He hugged me, of course. It was very sad.”
“It was just bad timing. Ultimately, it was a mutual decision.”
“I was always successful, and so having a failed marriage was hard, and then my business took a huge plunge in the recession. It was a double-whammy for me. I didn’t date anybody for years,” she said.
She insisted that she and Elba are still friends and speak on the phone every few weeks.
Hamlin said her career has since recovered and that she was seeing someone new.
Sharing her thoughts on his other relationships after theirs ended, she said, “Maybe anything after that wasn’t genuine, otherwise he would have married them. I’d be happy for him if he got married again, and he genuinely loved that person. I’m not a jealous person. I want him to be happy, just like I’m sure he wants me to be happy. I don’t think he’s ever going to have a problem being lonely,” she told the Mail.
The actor recently split with his longtime girlfriend and mother of his 2-year-old son Winston, Naiyana Garth, and has been linked to supermodel Naomi Campbell.
