Brexit critic Firth made Italian citizen
COLIN FIRTH has been granted Italian citizenship.
The Italian interior ministry said the “celebrated” 57-year-old British actor – star of The King’s Speech – “has married a citizen of our nation and has expressed his love for our country.”
The granting of citizenship was announced on Friday, the day that Theresa May travelled to Florence to deliver a speech about Britain’s departure from the EU.
Mr Firth has spoken publicly of his dismay over Brexit, calling it
“a disaster of unexpected proportions”.
However, his publicist told The Telegraph sion to apply for Italian citizenship was nothing to do with Brexit but that his family all had Italian passports. Mr Firth’s wife, Livia, is Italian and the couple have two children, Luca and Matteo, who are Italian citizens. In a statement from his agent yesterday, Mr Firth said he would always be “extremely British” but amid “uncertainty” his family decided to all get the same citizenship.
“We never really thought much our different passports. But now, with some of the uncertainty, we thought it sensible that we should get the same. I will always be extremely British. It is our home. We love it here.” Mr Firth said he “married into Italy” and “when you marry an Italian, you don’t just marry one person; you marry a family and a country.”