ACTRESS ROSE ON
SCOTS actress Rose Leslie has revealed she and her Game of Thrones star husband Kit Harington took time to bond with their son.
The pair, who met on the set of the fantasy TV epic – had their first child in February last year. And in a frank interview have admitted their love for him grew with time.
Aberdeen-born Rose, 35, said: “When my son was born, the narrative seemed to be that you’re automatically going to be enamoured with this little person. But why should that be the case when you have never experienced having a child?
“Why should it come innately? There’s an element of me saying, “Hey, buddy, we’re here now. It’s amazing.
“But I’ve got to get to know you, and forge the relationship that’s going to see us through our lifetime. It’s something my husband also found.
“Once we recognised that the love gets built rather than being 100 per cent there from the start, once we voiced that opinion to each other, it felt like a real release.”
Rose was raised in Lickleyhead Castle in Aberdeenshire, her family’s 15th-century ancestral seat.
Her father, Sebastian ArbuthnotLeslie, is the Aberdeenshire Chieftain of Clan Leslie.
Her maternal great-great-grandfather was Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat, and descendant of Charles II.
But after meeting Kit, 35, on the set of Game of Thrones and falling in love like their characters Ygritte and Jon Snow, they wed in 2018 at Rayne Church and had the reception at Wardhill Castle in Old Rayne, another of the family’s castles.
Despite the blue blood lineage – Rose won’t be teaching her son, who they haven’t named publicly, about her posh connections.
Instead she wants to bring him up with Scottish values she holds dear.
Rose, who with Kit and their son live in a 15th-century Tudor farmhouse in east Anglia, said: “It’s important that he’s aware of his ancestry in the way that it’s important for every family, but, for me, it’s more about instilling values – it’s not necessarily talking about Charles II!”
Rose lived at Lickleyhead Castle
until she was 10 when the family had to move to another ancestral home in France because her mother wanted to expose her three children to a different way of life. Rose then moved to London aged 18 to study drama. But Scotland feels like home.
She said: “Nothing quite captures the peace in my soul the way that the Scottish countryside does. I associate family, love and security with the landscape. But the idea that the castle was very quaint and idyllic isn’t the truth. It was draughty and cold.”
Since Game of Thrones finished for Ygritte in 2014 in the fourth series she has starred in film The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel and this year on ensemble Hollywood movie Death on the Nile as Louise, the personal maid to wealthy heiress Linnet, played by Gal Gadot. She’s also starred in three series of American TV legal drama The Good Fight and last year in Scots-based drama Vigil.
But recently she’s had to juggle being a mum with work filming upcoming drama series The Time Traveler’s Wife. On filming The Time Traveler’s Wife as a new mum, she