LENA HEADEY'S LIFE OFF-SCREEN FROM FAMOUS HUSBAND TO TRAGIC HEALTH ADMISSION

The Abandons has just arrived on Netflix and the epic Western drama boasts a star-studded cast, including Game of Thrones legend Lena Headey as Fiona Nolan.

In the series, the Irish powerhouse fights fiercely to protect her land and her adopted children from the clutches of European aristocrats, and it has already received rave reviews.

Lena Headey is a 52-year-old British actress who gained worldwide recognition as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones. She was born in Bermuda, as her father, a police officer from Yorkshire, was stationed in Hamilton at the time in the Bermuda Police Service.

She has a younger brother called Tim, and when she was five, her family moved back to England, where they settled in Somerset. She was first noticed as an aspiring actress when she was 17, following a school production at the Royal National Theatre.

After this, she was picked for a role in the 1992 film Waterland, and her career would continue to go from strength to strength.

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Away from the cameras, the actress has been open about her personal life and her relationships, and she first married musician Peter Loughran in May 2007.

They had a son together, Wylie, who was born in 2010, and she has spoken candidly about suffering from postnatal depression following his birth.

She had been filming the first season of Game of Thrones and she told The Edit she felt "really horrendous" filming some of the traumatic scenes.

She said: "I was postnatally depressed, but I didn't know it. I saw a doctor for the medical check, and I just burst into tears.

"She said I was postnatally depressed and I went, 'Am I? Why is that?' I saw a great guy and he sorted me out, but I did the first year [on GoT] in that space, figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally. It was tricky."

She filed for divorce in 2012 and three years later, in 2015, she gave birth to a daughter, Teddy, with filmmaker Dan Cadan, a childhood friend who had worked with her on his short film The Devil's Wedding.

The pair were engaged and she told the New York Times: "I always said to him, 'Don't ever ask me to marry you, it's a disaster,' but it actually feels really wonderful."

However, they had separated by June 2019 and later, in October 2022, Headey married American actor Marc Menchaca, whom she had been dating since 2020.

Menchaca, 50, is best known for his lead role in Reparation but has also starred in Ozark, The Sinner, Manifest and The Outsider.

The pair married in a private ceremony in Italy, and several of her Game of Thrones co-stars attended the wedding, including Sophie Turner and Peter Dinklage.

The Abandons is on Netflix

2025-12-04T11:49:39Z