Emma Thompson: 'Monogamy is an Odd State for Women'
Emma Thompson has been married to husband Greg Wise for 10 years, but remains critical of the way monogamy is portrayed. The actress and author said Wednesday that fairy tales shown to young girls can have an adverse effect on their perception of relationships.
"I do think that monogamy is an odd state, and actually I think it's an odd state for women. I think that we're locked into certain ideas and certain romantic ideals that have shaped our thinking about relationship for some time," Thompson said during an Internet chat with fans.
"And I do sometimes wonder about whether there are alternatives, and about whether our fury and rage and disbelief and horror about infidelity is quite realistic. All the fairy stories end when people get married and go off into the sunset; there are very few stories that deal with the nuts and bolts and actualities of serious relationships," Thompson continued.
The actress and writer has been married to fellow actor Greg Wise since 2003. The two met in 1995 and married several years afterwards. She was previous married to actor Kenneth Branagh, but that relationship ended in heartache and led Thompson, in her words, into a deep depression.
"Work saved me and Greg [Wise] saved me," she told BBC Radio Four. "he picked up the pieces and put them together again."
Thompson and Wise welcomed a daughter Gaia via in vitro fertilization and tried to have another child but were unable to do so. They adopted son Tindyebwa Agaba and have enjoyed life together in London. Thompson is a known atheist who is very skeptical of religion.
"I actually regard the system as distressing. I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qu'ran and I refute them," Thompson told The Australian in 2011. However, she admitted that the principles of the Bible are "good" not long afterwards.
"The guiding moral principles, the ethical principles, much of the philosophy of the Christian tradition, if properly applied, is very good," she told Good Housekeeping later the same year.
