Nighy and Wintour: is it Love Actually?

Bi ll Nighy has been quizzed for the first time about the nature of his relationship with American Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The love Actually actor attended the Met gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New york last month, an extravaganza organised by Wintour, and has regularly appeared at fashion shows with the formidable editor — prompting speculation that the pair (left) might be dating.

When asked whether it’s true, Nighy tells an American paper: ‘Well, i have obviously nothing to say about that,’ adding that ‘there are a lot of rumours about me and probably about Anna Wintour’.

So is it a case of love Actually or love Potentially? Nighy, 65, has been close to Wintour for years, but in recent months their friendship is thought to have moved on to a different footing.

They were together on the afternoon of the Met gala, at the Mark hotel, which is where Wintour stays when she organises the ball. She was also heavily i nvolved the previous month with organising the opening night on Broadway of Nighy’s latest play, Skylight, which earned him a Tony nomination.

Nighy broke up with actress Diana Quick, his partner of 27 years, in 2008. The two have a daughter, Mary Nighy, who is also an actress.

Wintour, 65, has two children by David Shaffer, whom she divorced in 1999. She has since been with Texan electronics tycoon Shelby Bryan. They left their respective spouses for one another when their affair became public. Nicknamed ‘Nuclear Wintour’ and ‘the ice Queen’, she inspired the waspish fashion editor played by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.

While Nighy now lives alone in london, where he takes pride in his lack of domesticity, Wintour has a close circle of male friends, including theatre director Sir Nicholas hytner and Roger Federer, on whom she has a schoolgirlish crush.

The tennis player says that Wintour is his image-maker on and off the court, and she even advises him on his haircut. Nighy has only himself to blame for his own shaggy locks.