JUDE LAW THE JOY OF SIX... CHILDREN
After becoming a father for the sixth time, actor Jude reflects on the joys of parenthood, the long road to contentment and surviving lockdown with his thoroughly modern brood…
JUDE Law has recently become a father for the sixth time. “That’s right – I have six children!” he nods, looking a little incredulous, when we talk by Zoom, in his comfortable, cluttered house in north London. This summer, his wife of a year and companion since 2015, psychologist Phillipa Coan, 33, gave birth to the latest daughter of the Law clan. While the couple are so far choosing to keep the new arrival’s name private, Jude’s delight in all his children could not be more apparent in the broad grin that covers his face when he talks of them.
“I never imagined that I’d have so many children but I love them all dearly and they definitely keep me young a bit,” he explains.
“We were all together just yesterday, actually, because my youngest son turned 18 so we had a family dinner, which was probably the last time we’ll all be able to get together for a while because new rules are being implemented here for groups of over six people – and there are obviously more than six of us!”
The brood, while loving, is a diverse one that spans many ages and represents many of the actor’s relationships.
The oldest three, lookalike son Rafferty, now 23, modelling beauty daughter Iris, 19, and birthday boy Rudy are the product of his marriage to actress Sadie Frost; 11- year- old Sophia is the daughter of American model Samantha Burke, with whom he had a brief relationship after meeting on the set of Sherlock Holmes – she lives in America with her mother, where Jude reportedly provides financial support and sees her once a year; while Ava, five, is the daughter of singer- songwriter Catherine Harding, better known as The Voice star Cat Cavelli.
Taken in tandem with the newborn, it’s hardly what you’d call the conventional family picture – but Jude says, firmly, it’s not one whit the worse for that.
“To see them all together at the party, with this incredibly broad range of ages, was just wonderful, really wonderful,” he purrs.
“They’re all very much themselves in their own different ways. My oldest son looks like me, and he certainly has qualities that are similar to mine, but he’s very much his own person, as they all are.
“It’s the joy of being a parent, isn’t it? You see a little bit of yourself, you see a little bit of their mother, but you also see this person growing and evolving in front of you who is just themselves. I love it. And the party was particularly beautiful because you realise that lockdown has taught us to cherish these moments that are so important and special.” Also present at the party were Jude’s ex- wife Sadie Frost and her son, halfbrother of Jude’s older three, Finlay Munro Kemp, now 29, as well as Jude’s parents, retired teachers Peter and Maggie Law, who, Jude says now a little wistfully, had a particularly poignant reason for celebrating their son’s large family.
“My parents were both adopted. They were very happily adopted and the people who adopted them were in both cases incredibly lovely, but both sets were quite elderly and they died when my parents were quite young. Neither of them had much of a family when they met, so it’s been up to my sister and me to expand the Law tribe, and I think we’ve done a great job at it!”
It is no secret Jude’s road to family contentment has been a long and winding one. When he first fell in love with Sadie, she was still married to Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, whom she left for Jude.
SIX years into their marriage, he famously left her for Alfie co- star Sienna Miller, to whom he was actually engaged to be married before he was discovered to be having an affair with his children’s nanny.
His subsequent “bachelor years” led to both Sophia and Ava, having moved on from their respective mothers by the time of their births. Even when he started to date Phillipa, his previous girlfriend, French journalist Rachel Bourlier, claimed she only found out she had been ousted when she read about it in the newspaper.
Jude, 47, does not now pretend to be proud of any of this but does say, firmly, that
‘ Lockdown has taught us to cherish family moments that are so important and special’
things are different these days. “I see life as an opportunity to grow permanently. “And I like to think that every day is an opportunity to improve yourself, whether as a husband, a father, a friend, or just as a person, a citizen of the earth. It’s essential that love be at the heart of a family, and I think it’s important for all of us to work things though, to listen to each other and to understand – and, when necessary, to move on.” Like all of us, he’s had a lot of time to reflect on such matters lately, having been locked at home during the pandemic. “I’ve been doing what everyone’s been doing,” he laughs of the last six months. “I’ve been doing all the jobs I’ve been putting off for years and years and years – a lot of cleaning up, a lot of fixing of squeaky doors, and things like that. And I’ve been working in the garden – and how lucky am I, to be living in London and having a garden, which is something I love.
“I’ve really enjoyed spending time in it and watching it bloom – I work on it myself and grow all sorts. I’ve got a couple of Bonsai trees and I’m particularly fond of Ayeshas. And I’ve been madly in love with my wisteria, which I trim daily, trying to train it up the whole other side of the house now. It’s been wonderful – I’m very fortunate.” He’s also enjoyed being able to spend time with his family – including, to his pleasure, his parents, who spend most of their time these days in Vaudelnay, France, where they own a drama school and small theatre.
At the urging of Jude and his sister Natasha, they extended a short visit to London in the spring to last through the summer.
“They were here anyway, and then the lockdown was called, so me and my sister said, ‘ Stay, stay, stay, stay.’ And I’m glad they stayed, because I think we all felt we wanted our loved ones close right now, right? And they’re doing fine, thank you for asking – a little uneasy, as is everyone of a certain age right now. But they’re doing all right, actually.” On the work front, he’s about to be seen in two projects: The Nest, a tense drama about a successful businessman who moves his American wife and family back to England, only to discover that he cannot outrun his demons, and The Third Day, a chilling television miniseries set on a remote island where the natives behave in ever more sinister ways.
IT IS not, to put it mildly, for the fainthearted. “I underestimated the impact of playing that part, both physically and emotionally,” he admits. “It was gruelling – but once you’re in, you’re in and the writing is wonderful – it’s by Dennis Kelly, who is just a brilliant writer, and as it fleshed out, it became clear that this story was going to be really interesting and timely and fertile. “And it’s funny, too, which I liked. Because the thing I find about humans is that we are sometimes quite ridiculously funny, just because of the strange things we do. “We can be upsetting obviously. But in many ways, we’re so absurd, it’s just funny.”
‘ Humans can be quite ridiculously funny, just because of the strange things we do’