Emma Thompson reveals heartbreak behind one of Love Actually's most famous scenes

The famous crying scene in Love Actually was inspired by true events, Emma Thomson has revealed.

In the scene, Thompson’s character Karen finds out her husband, played by the late Alan Rickman, is cheating on her after he gifts her a Joni Mitchell album for Christmas, instead of a necklace she'd previously found and assumed she would be receiving.

She excuses herself, goes in her bedroom and breaks down in tears.

It turns out the emotional scene was so riveting because Thompson had drawn from her own, very visceral pain, brought about from finding out her husband Kenneth Branagh had reportedly engaged in an affair with Helena Bonham Carter in 1994, ending their eight year marriage. Carter stayed with Branagh until 1999.

Speaking at a fundraiser event for the for the Tricycle Theatre in London, she said:

That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through.

I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me.

Well it wasn’t exactly like that, but we’ve all been through it.

If you feel like blubbering, you can re-watch the scene here:

H/T Mail Online

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