Helena Bonham Carter Calls Relationship with BF Rye Dag Holmboe ‘Unexpected Magic’

Actress Helena Bonham Carter just received the British Icon Award from Harper’s Bazaar, and she is opening up about her past and present relationships in the magazine’s December issue.

The 53-year-old star was in a relationship with director Tim Burton for 13 years before they split in 2014. Carter and Burton had an unconventional relationship, as they raised their two kids in adjoining houses. She has since moved on with Rye Dag Holmboe, a 32-year-old writer to whom she was first linked about a year ago, while Burton is reportedly dating actress Eva Green.

Helena tells the magazine, “You break up, you grieve, you get bored of grieving, and then you finally move on. I’m very happy with someone else. It’s been a bit of unexpected magic in my life.”

Her love life and her career are both in a good place, she reveals in the issue. “When I turned 50, I worried it was downhill all the way. But it’s quite the opposite. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier or more fulfilled. This huge blooming of television means character-driven stories, so there’s a lot of choice and a lot of work. When I was young, you were considered ‘older’ over 30.”

Next up, she will play Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister Princess Margaret in the Netflix series “The Crown.”

The royal, who passed away in 2002, was a lifelong friend of Carter’s uncle, Mark Bonham Carter.

Helena reveals, “He was in the Grenadiers, I think, and he guarded Margaret and Elizabeth at Windsor. And then they met, and I think there was a romance. He was really dashing.”

She met the princess herself, explaining, “Margaret was on her own with a drink in her hand and she talked to me. She said, ‘Oh, Helena, you are getting better, aren’t you, at acting?’ Typical Margaret!”

Why did the actress want to take on the role? “I wanted to do her justice,” Helena says. “If someone does, as people said, behave rudely, there’s always a reason. It usually means that they’re unhappy.”

The December issue of Harper’s Bazaar is on sale October 30.