‘It’s something everyone’s been through’: How Emma Thompson’s genuine heartbreak inspired the scene THE LOVE Actually after her very public split from Sir Kenneth Branagh

Dame Emma Thompson has revealed her true heartbreak which inspired her very emotional response in this famous Love Actually scene.

The actress, 63, portrayed Alan Rickman’s on-screen wife in the romantic comedy, and in one famous scene she discovers her husband is cheating on her.

In the heartbreaking moment, Emma’s character, Karen, breaks down in tears when she realizes her husband, Harry, bought another woman a necklace.

She had previously discovered the beautiful necklace in her husband’s jacket pocket, but was devastated when he gave her a Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas instead.

Karen then apologizes and collapses in her bedroom before wiping away her tears and going back to laughing with her husband and their two children.

Emotional: The actress, 63, portrayed Alan Rickman’s wife in the romantic comedy and discovers her husband is cheating on her in a famous scene

And Emma revealed that her own genuine heartbreak inspired her deeply emotional response to the 2003 Christmas classic.

She shared that while she was filming the moment, she was channeling her feelings of betrayal Very public split from her first husband Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Emma and Kenneth married in 1989 and were the golden couple of British acting until Kenneth had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter while co-directing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Speaking about her devastation, Emma said her heart was “deeply broken” and that she understood what it was like to “find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me.”

“This scene where my character is crying by the bed is so famous because it’s something that everyone has experienced,” she said at a fundraiser in 2018.

“My heart is very broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly, but we’ve all been through it.”

Emma and Kenneth married just two years after they met, but his affair with Helena in 1995 ended their six-year marriage.

‘We’ve been through it all’: Emma was heartbroken when her first husband Sir Kenneth Branagh (pictured 1993) had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter

Affair: Helena reportedly began a relationship with Kenneth in 1994 while playing his love interest in his version of Frankenstein. They had a five-year relationship

Helena reportedly began a relationship with Kenneth in 1994 while playing his love interest on his version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. They had a five-year relationship.

It’s not the first time Emma has opened up about her upset after finding out about the affair, as she previously admitted she felt “unloved” after the end of her first marriage.

She told it Resident of New York“I was completely unaware of the fact that he had relationships with other women on set.

“What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”

“I was half alive. Any sense of being a lovable or dignified person was completely gone,” she added.

Two years before Helena met Kenneth and began their relationship, she worked with Emma on the 1992 romantic drama Howard’s End.

Since the affair The couple also collaborated on the Harry Potter series with Emma as Professor Trelawney and Helena as Bellatrix Lestrange.

However, Emma previously admitted that she had “forgiven” Helena for the affair a long time ago and in 2013 said that they had “made peace” years ago.

Revealing how she recovered from the devastation, Emma said it was her now 27-year-old husband Greg Wise who “picked up the pieces and put them back together”.

Moving on: Emma previously admitted she had long “forgiven” Helena (both pictured) for the affair and in 2013 said they had “made peace” years ago

Love: Emma revealed how she recovered from the devastation and said it was her now 27-year-old husband Greg Wise (pictured February 19) who “picked up the pieces”

Reflecting on her marriage to Greg, she added: “I learned more from my second marriage when I was married. As my mother says, ‘The first twenty years are the hardest.’

Emma met Greg in 1995 while filming Sense and Sensibility, which won an award Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

However, news of her and Kenneth’s separation was not made public when she filmed the historical drama.

Emma and Greg now share daughter Gaia (23) and son Tindyebwa. The couple adopted Tindyebwa, a former child soldier in Rwanda, in 2003 at the age of 16.