The White Lotus’ Theo James has been with his wife, actress Ruth Kearney, for more than a decade.
While the couple and parents of two haven’t share much about their life together, they have spoken a little about their history. Here’s everything to know about Kearney and her life with James behind-the-scenes.
Who is Ruth Kearney?
Kearney is Irish and grew up in Dublin. She likes to travel, based on her Instagram account, and had made posts about being “home” while visiting her city.
While she is an actress, Kearney seemingly has no interest in pursuing the level of fame James has earned after starring in The White Lotus and the Divergent films. She told the Irish Mirror in 2016, “I’m not in this industry to become famous; I don’t go for jobs because they will make me well known. It’s so, hopefully, they will lead to more interesting roles.”
She also said she doesn’t read official reviews of her work: “I’m more interested in normal people watching it and their reaction.”
In a video interview with ISSUE Magazine in 2017, Kearney stated, “It’s a tough career, but I feel like I can’t really imagine doing anything else. It can be great fun [but also] really challenging.”
That said, she and James have been in projects together, appearing in the first season of the Masterpiece PBS series Sanditon, based on the Jane Austen novel. In fact, they ended up married on-screen as the characters Sidney Parker and Eliza Campion. Kearney also starred as Jess Parker in Primeval, Daisy in The Following, and as London in Netflix’s Flaked, across from Will Arnett.
The couple works on other types of projects as well. They both support the UN Refugee Agency, which James has been working with since 2016. They were together at an event for World Refugee Day in 2018, along with some other celebrity guests.
They also both appear to enjoy fashion and make appearances at various cities’ fashion weeks on a regular basis.
How long have Kearney and James been together?
The couple first met as students at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the late 2000s. James told the Evening Standard in 2020 that they first connected while “huddled in leotards pretending to be mice…Being frogs. We did all that animal shit.”
He shared his first impressions of her: “She’s very sanguine, thoughtful and funny… It made sense pretty early on.”
According to InStyle, the couple were married in 2018, first enjoying a small civil ceremony at Islington Town Hall and then a larger event in Tuscany, Italy’s Villa Vistarenni.
Do they have any children?
Kearney and James welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in August 2021. Their second baby, a boy, was born in 2023. The couple has not shared their kids’ names. In fact, the pair only revealed they had a second baby when James made an offhand comment at the KTLA5 Emmys red carpet show in January 2024. He said, “We have a 4-month-old. We’re in the thick of it. We have a daughter and then a 4-month-old son.”
But James did share a bit about his experience with fatherhood while talking to InStyle.
“It’s discombobulating at first,” he said. “Especially with your first child because your whole life changes, but ultimately it makes you—definitely for me, at least—a much more solid person.”
He added that “you still do all the same shit that you did before,” but his priorities changed as a parent.
“For example, obsessiveness, worrying about X or Y—it does calm that kind of outlook on life because it makes you realize that certain things are a bit more important,” he said.
What else has James said about Kearney?
When talking to the Evening Standard in 2020, James said, “It’s interesting being together this long because we have navigated through the very beginnings of our careers…That can be hard at times, but also that [brings] certain strengths [to] a relationship.”
And in his interview with InStyle, he discussed their changing dynamic as they’ve aged.
He said they met in their mid-20s. “I think my wife if we went back there now, she wouldn’t want to hang out with that guy,” he admitted. “He did dumb stuff and was stupid and angry. It’s so true in a way; you evolve constantly.”