One of the things that\u2019s feeding his inner McCartney is becoming a grandfather. His son Albie, a TV producer, had a child last year. \u201cIt\u2019s just great,\u201d he says beaming. \u201cReally wonderful to see my son become a father, and how he deals with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He and his ex-wife, the novelist Esther Freud, have three children: Albie, 30, Anna, 27, and Gene, 19. They divorced in 2020 after almost 27 years together and have new partners. Morrissey won\u2019t be drawn on his, but he has been spotted around town with the theatrical agent Larah Simpson, 32, while Freud is in a relationship with Gerry Simpson, 62, a professor of law at the LSE. Freud said on a podcast recently that becoming grandparents has brought the former spouses closer together. <\/p>\n
He thinks they\u2019ve had a good relationship for longer than that. \u201cEsther lives down the road from me, so we see each other all the time, and we have a great relationship around being grandparents,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was very important for us, regardless of what was happening between the two of us, that we remained good parents together and united parents together. It\u2019s about being in communication with each other and all three of the kids. I think we\u2019ve done that well already. That says a lot about Esther.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pauses. \u201cAnd we share a dog, which is more challenging.\u201d In 2013 they adopted a collie-cross called Billie from the RSPCA. \u201cHe\u2019s getting old now, and lots of our family memories are around him. He was ill last year and we thought we were going to lose him. It was big stuff for us as a family.\u201d You can see the concern on his face, but it\u2019s not just the dog\u2019s mortality that affected him. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m selfish about it, I don\u2019t want to be suddenly \u2018Grandad\u2019,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to see me in that light. I never knew my grandad, but my brother says he was an old man. I don\u2019t want to be an old man. So it suddenly brings mortality into focus. How long have I got left? How long am I going to have in this boy\u2019s life?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Morrissey with Esther Freud in 2014<\/p>\n
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His father\u2019s death started that clock ticking early. \u201cI was very aware of mortality at a very early age, and I\u2019ve been marking off the years since I was 12,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve been living on borrowed time all my life. And being an actor means I spend a lot of time looking in the mirror. Imagine every morning you go to work and the first thing you do is sit in front of a mirror for ages, staring at your face. It\u2019s a little too much awareness, trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t look like a grandfather, I tell him. He\u2019s in good shape and there\u2019s barely a wrinkle on his skin. \u201cIt\u2019s an attitude, isn\u2019t it?\u201d he nods. \u201cWe are ageing differently<\/a>. Our diet is different. I don\u2019t smoke, I don\u2019t drink, I look after myself. So we are different to our parents\u2019 generation in that way. I used to run and play five-a-side, but these days I just couldn\u2019t. I do go to the gym \u2014 weights and cardio \u2014 but you also have to know yourself. I know I get hangry,\u201d he indicates the Pret bag he has brought with him. \u201cAnd numbers are numbers. You can\u2019t fight them for ever. You can just try to understand them and yourself better.\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder if this is why his roles have always explored masculinity. Whether it\u2019s Gordon Brown wrestling with friendship and ambition in The Deal, the suspicious husband DCS Ian St Clair in Sherwood or hapless Malcolm in Daddy Issues, the list covers almost all of his career. <\/p>\n David Morrissey with Aimee Lou Wood in Daddy Issues<\/p>\n \u201cI think any male role [does], though, no?\u201d he says thoughtfully. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what alarms me about men. I work for a number of charities, and I was at this big fundraising event where I heard Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, the chair of Refuge, give a speech. It just knocked me out. The huge majority of domestic abuse is men against women. Of course there are some exceptions to that, but it\u2019s a male problem.\u201d<\/p>\n He has since become an ambassador for the charity, which provides safe houses and a helpline for women and children and leads national campaigns. He seems so passionate, I wonder if he has seen domestic abuse<\/a> in his own life. There\u2019s a pause. <\/p>\n \u2022 David Morrissey on Sherwood: It was a volatile situation. I dug in<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen it, it\u2019s affected friends and family of mine, but it\u2019s a little difficult for me to talk about that,\u201d he says carefully. \u201cI grew up in streets where you knew it was going on behind closed doors, and no one said anything. There was always some sort of excuse \u2014 substance abuse or alcoholism \u2014 but the anger, the desire to let loose on women and girls around you? It\u2019s just disgraceful. It\u2019s not just the physical violence but also that coercive bullying, isolating someone from their friends and family, controlling them. On average, one woman is killed by an abusive partner or ex every five days in England and Wales. Labour has said it will reduce by half the violence against women and girls over the next decade. It\u2019s done nothing in the first year. It needs to act now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Aimee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\/86ffdc2e-2e2d-44a4-b21b-ba64dfb1bb95.jpg\")
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