{"id":369178,"date":"2026-04-08T08:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T08:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:02:14","slug":"stephen-fry-sends-defiant-message-to-critics-of-age-gap-marriage-in-the-assembly-interview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369178\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Fry sends defiant message to critics of age-gap marriage in The Assembly interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stephen Fry<\/a> has shared a defiant message with critics of his age-gap relationship with husband Elliott Spencer, who is 30 years his junior.<\/p>\n

The Celebrity Traitors star faced the line of questioning on ITV<\/a> series The Assembly, which has previously been called<\/a> \u201cthe most groundbreaking show of the year\u201d. The format sees a celebrity interviewee taking part in a wide-ranging group questioning where the people with the microphones all are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled.<\/p>\n

The show returns for series two on Wednesday (8 April), where Fry, 68, fields questions from the assembly about his religious beliefs, former cocaine habit and mental health struggles.<\/p>\n

\"FryFry was quizzed on ITV’s ‘The Assembly’ (ITV)<\/p>\n

In one part, the former QI host was asked about his \u201c30-year age gap\u201d with his 38-year-old husband, with the questioner explaining that she, too, was older than her girlfriend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you say to people who don\u2019t like age-gap relationships?\u201d she asked, to which Fry responded: \u201cI feel a bit sorry for them. I don\u2019t see why they should have such an opinion about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that should matter in a relationship is love and if you feel it,\u201d Fry continued, clarifying that this should be \u201cfelt on both sides\u201d and \u201cnot an exploitative relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I always say to people that in our relationship, Elliot has all the power, really,\u201d he said. \u201cHe makes a lot of the decisions about things because I trust him to. It just works for us, extremely well, and if people don\u2019t like it, well, sod them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legendary British actor, writer and presenter met comedian Spencer at a house party in 2012. They announced their engagement in 2015 and were married 10 days later.<\/p>\n

\"FryFry and Spencer famously keep their relationship private (Getty)<\/p>\n

The pair have long kept their relationship private and are rarely photographed together, although Spencer shared a similarly strong response<\/a> to those who criticise their relationship back in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what people think,\u201d he said. \u201cStephen is the love of my life, the light of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fry, meanwhile, has previously credited his younger husband for broadening his cultural horizons, saying in a 2025 podcast appearance: \u201cHe teaches me things I just didn\u2019t know. He introduced me to Kendrick Lamar, which was a great thing to do because Kendrick Lamar, I\u2019ve decided, is a great poetical spirit, a really remarkable figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the episode, Fry was asked an even more personal questions about his relationship, as he was questioned on which sexual position he favoured in intimate moments with his husband.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe married couple, pictured in 2015, the year of their wedding (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cWow! That is direct as it gets,\u201d Fry said, before saying that he was \u201cgoing to leave that a mystery for people to guess\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the show\u2019s launch, Fry admitted that he\u2019d been taken aback by \u201cthe rather eye-watering curiosity as to my sexual preferences\u201d. \u201cNot sexuality, you understand \u2013 that was understood \u2013 but my preferences within that sexuality framework\u2026 well, I wasn\u2019t expecting that!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fry is one of six stars to face the questioning firing line on this series of The Assembly<\/a>, with Lenny Henry, Nicola Sturgeon, Anna Maxwell Martin and Aitch all appearing on the new series. The final celebrity will be revealed at a later date, with the first series featuring interviews with Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Jade Thirlwall and Danny Dyer.<\/p>\n

The Assembly begins on Wednesday 8 April at 10.05pm on ITV1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-369178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}