The love story between Kit Harington and Rose Leslie is almost too perfect to be believed. They met while working on the second season of HBO's mega-hit Game of Thrones: he played the brooding Night's Watchmen Jon Snow, and she the fiery wildling warrior Ygritte. As Jon and Ygritte feel in love onscreen, so did Harington and Leslie offscreen. "It was in the winter, which meant we only had four hours of daylight to shoot," Leslie told Tatler. "So we’d wrap at 2 pm and then we’d have the rest of the afternoon and the evening. Because it was in the middle of nowhere, we were all sitting together in the same hotel, so you got to know everyone, there was a real camaraderie."
Ygritte died a couple seasons later, but by then the actors were already a couple. They married in 2018 at a castle owned by Rose Leslie's family; Mumford & Sons reportedly played at the reception. "God, I felt so elated that day," Leslie remembered. "It was the culmination of being married to the love of my life, in the home that I was incredibly happy in, bringing all my friends to Scotland – and the joy of that day was just fantastic. Because it was at home in the garden, we carried on [all night] – Mum was on the table at 4am." She and Harington shared their first dance to "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes: "There was no routine, we were just turning one another around, spin, spin, spin – 10 seconds of embarrassment, then pulling everyone in."
The pair now have two young children, a boy and a girl, and thriving careers; Harington recently joined the cast of the HBO show Industry for its third season, and Leslie is making her Royal Shakespeare Company debut in a production of The Constant Wife. At the same time, the two try their best to lead normal family lives. "I don’t mean to be insincere at all, but I don’t think we are in the spotlight," Leslie said. "It’s not something that we independently or together chase. We are fortunate whereby if there are projects we do that galvanize attention, then that’s amazing – but I don’t think we feel famous at all."
Game of Thrones is in the rearview mirror for both Leslie and Harington at this point, although they're still in contact with their castmates. According to Leslie, there's a WhatsApp group made just for Game of Thrones stars who made it to the end of the series, which means Harington is in it and she isn't. "He speaks to several other cast members, but there’s a bond that they all have, because for nearly 10 years those guys were together on the most extraordinary rollercoaster," Leslie said. "And I had the most brilliant time being a part of that and then stepping back and seeing it elevate to the phenomenon that it became."
As for Leslie, she's stayed closest with Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen. "She is the most wonderful human being and a fantastic girlfriend," she said.
And it's hard to avoid Game of Thrones completely, as huge as it was. Neither of them like to watch their own work, although they did catch an episode of Game of Thrones together not long ago, one they were both in. "We were so young," Leslie said, in horror. "We struggle with watching one another, we struggle with watching ourselves."
As for whether they'll eventually let their children watch Game of Thrones, Leslie doesn't think it's up to them...apart she might steer them away from "the cave scene," when Jon and Ygritte consummate their relationship for the first time. "I’d rather not – but the other scenes and whatnot," Leslie laughed.
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