Strictly star Alex Kingston's three marriages – affair heartache to fertility woes

Strictly Come Dancing star Alex Kingston was the second celebrity to be announced in the celebrity line-up for this year's series.

The actress, 52, is known to many for her stint in Doctor Who as she starred as River Song for 15 episodes on and off from 2008 until 2015. Alex also had roles in The Bill, ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and NCIS.

Alex has also had roles in film and radio shows as well as stage productions, too. Outside of her flourishing acting career, which has seen Alex win a BAFTA TV Award and four SAG Awards, the actress has faced a string of ups and downs in her love life.

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Here, we take a look inside Alex's three marriages as she prepares to take to the Strictly Come Dancing dance floor...

Ralph Fiennes marriage and affair heartache

Alex met fellow actor Ralph while studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The pair were in a relationship for 10 years before they married in 1993.

Sadly, their relationship only lasted for two years after they tied the knot as their relationship ended when Ralph, who went on to play Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, had an affair with his Hamlet co-star Francesca Annis, who was 18 years his senior and played his mother in the play, which they performed at the Hackney Empire.

Ralph left Alex in 1996 and they divorced the following year.

Alex previously opened up about their rocky relationship before they wed. She recalled: "We were like strangers – very fragile. His mother was dying and somehow we thought the wedding was going to heal everything. But that was crazy, of course."

Post-divorce, Alex was left heartbroken. "I was feeling worthless," she told the Daily Mail. "that I would never find anyone else as good as my husband, which is ridiculous, but I had so little self-esteem."

Alex added: "Divorce is awful but it is also something I don’t regret happening to me because it has shaped who I am now."

Ralph then went on to have a relationship with Francesca, who reportedly split from photographer Patrick Wiseman to be with Ralph. They dated from 1997 until 2006 when it was alleged Ralph had an affair with Romanian singer Corneila Crisan, who claimed she had been seeing the actor for two years.

Just 24 hours later, Fiennes and Francesca announced their split, with a brief statement saying: “Miss Annis confirms today that she and Ralph Fiennes are to separate.”

Florian Haertel marriage and fertility woes

In 1997, Alex moved to LA to begin filming ER and she met husband Florian after being set up on a blind date by friends.

Two years later in the summer of 1999, Alex wed German writer Florian Haertel. The couple went on to welcome daughter Salome in 2001, but it wasn't without its difficulties. The pair went through IVF treatment to start a family after trying for a baby six months after their wedding and struggling to conceive.

Alex previously opened up to the Evening Standard about her struggles to conceive. She said: "The doctors hadn't found anything medically wrong, so I thought maybe the chemistry between my first husband and I was wrong.

"When I met Florian I assumed, I suppose rather naively, that it would all be fine and we'd have a baby very quickly."

After six months of trying to conceive naturally, Alex and Florian attempted six goes of conception by 'turkey baster', where sperm is put directly into a woman's womb while she's ovulating. One of the attempts happened while she was on set of ER.

She recalled: "I was ovulating while I was 'operating' on the set of ER. Because I wasn't telling anybody what I was doing, there was no way I could say: 'I'm sorry, but I have to visit my gynaecologist, so we can't shoot this scene now.'

"So my gynaecologist drove from Santa Monica up to Burbank and waited in my trailer, and when we had a break for a lighting change I ran in to meet her and my husband.

"There wasn't enough light in the trailer and my husband had to go to the car and get one of those huge flashlights you use for breaking down. He brought it back and stuck it between my legs so my gynaecologist could shoot that turkey baster up.

"I was in my surgical scrubs, with my hat on and everything. It was very funny and we were all falling around. You're supposed to lie back with your legs in the air for 20 minutes, but I didn't have 20 minutes. Almost as soon as it was in, I had a knock on the door telling me I was needed back on set."

After those attempts were unsuccessful, Alex underwent IVF and later welcomed daughter Salome in March 2001.

The couple went on to separate in 2009 and finalised their divorce four years later.

Jonathan Stamp happy ending

Years before her split from Florian, Alex met her future third husband Jonathan Stamp on the set of BBC series The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone – however the pair were merely colleagues for years.

Then, in 2015, six years on from her separation from Florian Alex tied the knot for the third time. The couple tied the knot in at the All Saints Anglican Church in Rome, Italy in 2015.

Alex shunned tradition and wore a pastel green dress for the happy occasion and was seen beaming widely and hitching up her skirt as she left the picturesque church.

Since tying the knot 10 years ago, the couple have kept their marriage and relationship out of the spotlight.

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