Why Keeley Hawes, 50, is putting 'middle-aged love' on the map with her new drama after her marriage to Matthew Macfadyen, 51, began unconventionally with an 'awful' realisation

She is celebrating her 50th birthday and as she enters a new decade in her life, Keeley Hawes is also tackling a new challenge in her career - the love story. 

'There isn't a Normal People for midlife and yet there’s so much to mine in that age group,' she told Hunger Magazine in her latest interview as she discussed her new project Falling, a drama about middle-aged love. 

The six part Channel 4 series sees Keeley play a nun called Anna, who meets a Catholic priest just once at her convent, but when their coats brush as he is leaving she realises she has fallen in love with him.

Based on a true story, she later receives a letter saying he feels the same way and the pair leave the Church and get married. 

It sounds like the typical love story you watch in the movies, but for Keeley, her own long-lasting marriage to Matthew Macfadyen happened in a very similar impulsive , 'love at first sight' like way. 

There was just one problem, Keeley was already married with a young son.

The actress and her husband Matthew are lauded for having one of the strongest marriages in Hollywood after meeting on the set of Spooks 23 years ago in 2002. 

In October, the pair celebrated 21 years of marriage, with Keeley taking to Instagram with a selection of loved up snaps, in what became one of her most liked posts, as she penned: '21 years. No notes. Love you with all my heart.' 

Speaking to You Magazine she said: 'It doesn't feel like 21 years, by any means. We just sort of have a nice time. And also, you become more relaxed [as you get older]. 

'It would be weird to have a marriage where things don't go up and down occasionally in 21 years, but we're very happy.' 

Explaining it is the simple things that have resulted in their lasting relationship she said that now their children have left home they make sure to do things together, particularly travelling and spending time for each other. 

Yet their road to happily ever after was by no means smooth sailing, with Matthew previously describing the moment he fell in love with Keeley as 'awful.'   

At the time Keeley, who was then 26, was newly married to DJ Spencer McCallum, with whom she shares 25-year-old son Myles. 

Speaking to the Mail On Sunday in 2005, Matthew confessed he was in turmoil when he first met Keeley as he realised he had feelings for a married woman. 

He explained: 'It was awful because I realised I'd fallen for her. We weren't having an affair and it was a slow process. But I knew the effect she had on me. 

'She's gorgeous. Everyone who meets her will tell you the same thing.'

At first Keeley and Matthew struck up a friendship, with the actress also insisting that nothing happened between them until her marriage ended, saying: 'I'm sure nobody would believe we never had an affair but we really didn't.'

Speaking about the fairytale moment they first said the L word, Keeley recalled: 'Matthew just came straight out with it and said "I love you" in the rain one day. I thought, "Oh dear, here we go.”' 

Choosing to leave her marriage, Keeley's divorce from Spencer was finalised in 2004 but Keeley has revealed there is no bad blood with her ex, explaining: 'Spencer and I were best friends before we married, and we’ve managed to stay that way. 

'Happily, both my husband and my ex-husband get along brilliantly. They are both generous people, to each other and to the children.'

In November 2004, she wed Matthew after the pair eloped. 

Matt recalled: 'We rang a mate each to come along as witnesses and people brought little throwaway cameras to take pictures. 

'I read a poem and Keeley cried her eyes out. It was wonderful and romantic.

'Keeley was heavily pregnant with our daughter and the whole thing seemed perfect to me... To get married, celebrate my 30th and then become a father, in quick succession, was fantastic.'

They welcomed their first child, daughter Maggie, the following month, and their son Ralph two years later in 2006. 

The following year, the couple worked together again on a new project as they appeared in 2007 comedy Death at a Funeral.

They also co-starred in Stonehouse in 2023, dramatising the life and times of disgraced British government minister John Stonehouse.

The series followed love cheat Labour MP John Stonehouse, who faked his own death before running off with his mistress and later being exposed as a spy. 

While playing the jilted wife in the show, Keeley insisted that her union was the complete opposite to that of politician John and Barbara.

She told the Mirror: 'We have worked together before, but not for several years. And so when this came up, it seemed like the perfect project on so many levels really, mostly because the Stonehouses are so different to Matthew and I and to our relationship.

'So it’s nice to see us, I think, and interesting for people who may know that we are married to see us as the "other" couple.'

She told Matthew: 'It was really wonderful. It was very jolly, wasn’t it?'

He responded: 'Yeah, it was very difficult working with Keeley.

'She’s... it was hard. It was hard. No, that’s a silly answer. It was joyful working with Keeley. It was nice, wasn’t it?'

He added to Town & Country: 'We got to see each other, which is really nice. So often we’re sort of scattered in different countries. But the idea of going to work together was just great. We even took the dog.'

Despite Keeley and Matthew's hectic schedules they make sure to keep their marriage spark alive when torn apart on shoots. 

Matthew told The Evening Standard back in 2021: 'Keeley and I have a three-week rule — neither of us wants to be apart for any longer. So after three weeks on my own, I started to go a bit mad.

'You start to think. "What am I doing?" I'd be walking around Brooklyn, thinking, "where do I live?" It was odd and hard.' 

For the lovesick pair, they'll do whatever it takes to go the distance, with Keeley telling The Telegraph in 2010: 'I love being married to Matthew, and I know Matthew loves being married too.

'It ties everything up and it's a statement to each other and to the world. Marriage and being a mother are absolutely crucial to my happiness and my life.'

She added to The Daily Mail's You magazine: 'You have to work at it. We still fill up the dishwasher and put a wash on—that’s life—but you also have to make the effort to be romantic. 

'When life takes over, going out to dinner together isn’t top of your list, but before you know it, the children are older and around less and you’re sort of back together again. I couldn’t love him more. It helps that he’s the nicest man in the world….' 

The couple prove to be each other's biggest champions when they're not working together. 

When Keeley was nominated for a BAFTA in 2015 for her role in Line of Duty, Matthew told The Big Issue: 'It is so exciting – about f***ing time! 

'Trying to keep our careers going and focus on our family is tricky, but that is part of the fun. How do we make this work? Will we traumatise the children if we are not there for a few weeks? 

'But when one of us is working away, the other is usually at home.' 

And as the star turns 50, she is happier than ever: 'You hear people saying it, don't you, that when you get to a certain age, you think, "Well, I've never been happier. I wouldn't want to be in my 20s again.".

'Not that there was anything wrong with my 20s, but as you grow older you just relax. And I have relaxed.'