EXCLUSIVE Crown double bill as Claire Foy goes Dutch with her long-term singer-songwriter boyfriend (well she is a fan of equal pay!)
So when she went for dinner with her long-term boyfriend, of course they split the bill between them.
The actress has been dating singer-songwriter Charlie Cunningham for two years, and last week they were seen enjoying a casual dinner together outside a fishmonger's and acclaimed seafood bar in Highgate, North London.
The loved-up pair, both 41, looked happy to be reunited, as Cunningham has just finished the first leg of his North American tour, and were seen holding hands and kissing during the meal.
And when the time came to pay, both got out their bank cards and went Dutch on the bill – which included two glasses of rosé – before taking a romantic sunset stroll across nearby Hampstead Heath. Both were casually dressed in T-shirts, with Claire carrying a butter yellow bag.
The actress hit the headlines in 2018 when she revealed she was being paid less than her co-star, Matt Smith, on The Crown – even though she was playing the young Queen Elizabeth II, around whom the whole Netflix drama was based.
She later received an apology and an undisclosed amount – reported to be up to £200,000 – in back pay. 'I'd been working on that show for two years,' she later said. 'I loved everybody on it. And then I realised, there's been a big, fat, dirty secret that nobody's ever talked about.'
Foy was paid a reported £29,000 per episode for the first two series of the hit drama, while Smith's higher pay for playing the Duke of Edinburgh has never been revealed. Producers justified the disparity as he was then the better-known actor because of his starring role in Doctor Who.
The loved-up pair, both 41, looked happy to be reunited, as Cunningham has just finished the first leg of his North American tour
The couple's careers mean that they are often apart with Cunningham is playing several dates across Europe and Canada over the next few months
Smith defended his co-star's bid for parity, saying at the time: 'Claire is one of my best friends and I believe that we should be paid equally and fairly and there should be equality for all.'
Foy and Cunningham were first spotted together in July 2023. It is her first public relationship since her 2018 break-up with The History Boys actor Stephen Campbell Moore, the father of her daughter Ivy Rose.
The couple's careers mean that they are often apart. London-born Cunningham is playing several dates across Europe and Canada over the next few months, while Foy is currently filming H Is For Hawk, a biographical drama, alongside Brendan Gleeson.
She is also set to appear in an all-star adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree and the black comedy film Savage House alongside Richard E. Grant.
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