Strictly Come Dancing made its return to the BBC with series 23 as a fresh line-up of celebrities took to the dancefloor in hopes of lifting the Glitterball trophy. Among the 15 famous faces is award-winning actress Alex Kingston, who is best known for her roles in NBC medical drama ER and for her titular appearance in the ITV miniseries The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders. In the first live episode, which aired on Saturday (September 27), the 62-year-old made her debut alongside pro Johannes Radebe, and after impressing the judges, they received 21 votes.
However, viewers also praised the actress for her skills. It seems her ex-husband, Harry Potter icon Ralph Fiennes, 62, also caught wind of her Strictly debut. He promptly shared a clip of himself dancing with the same woman who reportedly wrecked their marriage. Ralph and Alex were together for 10 years before getting married in 1993. Sadly, their relationship only lasted for two years after they tied the knot.
Their relationship ended when Ralph had an affair with his Hamlet co-star Francesca Annis, who was 18 years his senior and played his mother in the play.
The pair will reunite on stage at the Theatre royal Bath for the first time on Friday (October 4) in a play called Small Hotel.
Although they do not play love interests in the production, Ralph decided to use a clip of him and Francesca dancing during rehearsals to promote the play, one day after Alex’s Strictly performance.
In a brow-raising twist, the video featured a voiceover, in which the Conclave star could be heard saying: “The play deals with intimacy. And it deals with past relationships.
“It is really the story of reconnecting with a past lover and the crisis that that meeting brings about.”
Ralph added: “I think there are ideas of loneliness, of disconnectedness, of disconnectedness, from people who we have been close to and interior disconnection."
Meanwhile, Francesca, 80, added: “One of the things about being in a new play is that your perspective on your own character changes according to who you are acting with.”
Coincidentally, Francesca is also playing Ralph's mother in Small Hotel - just as she did three decades ago when she played Gertrude to his Hamlet.
Reflecting on their rocky relationship before their 1997 divorce, Alex revealed: “We were like strangers – very fragile. His mother was dying and somehow we thought the wedding was going to heal everything. But that was crazy, of course.”
As for the aftermath of Ralph’s infidelity, she told the MailOnline: “I was feeling worthless that I would never find anyone else as good as my husband, which is ridiculous, but I had so little self-esteem.
“Divorce is awful but it is also something I don’t regret happening to me because it has shaped who I am now,” Alex added.
