‘Downton Abbey’ Star Michelle Dockery Just Got Married

Downton Abbey actress Michelle Dockery has tied the knot with partner Jasper Waller-Bridge. This momentous event came seven years after the passing of her fiancé, John Dineen.

In a white satin Emilia Wickstead gown with a square neckline and dropped waistline, Dockery walked out of St Nicholas’ church in Chiswick, West London, with her new husband – the brother of Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge – on Saturday, September 23, 2023, holding hands with him, according to photos obtained via Hello!

Jasper wore a blue three-piece suit to the wedding, and guests in attendance included Lily James and Downton Abbey costars Joanne Froggatt, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Lesley Manville, and Lesley Nicol. Laura Carmichael, who played Dockery’s sister Edith Crawley on-screen, appeared to be one of the bridesmaids wearing sea green gowns.

As Phoebe walked arm in arm with her partner Martin McDonaugh, she wore a vibrant coral suit, while Downton Abbey’s creator Julian Fellowes, 74, was also pictured attending, as well as some of the best known British and Irish actors, including James Norton, Imelda Staunton, Allen Leech, and Jim Carter.

Froggatt, who played Anna Bates in the ITV drama, wore a Ghost dress with a TopShop blazer, while James wore an Erdem floral gown with a boyfriend coat by Galvan.

The young couple, both 41 and 35, reportedly met through friends in 2019, and they made their first public appearance together later that year at the Rome Film Festival. They announced the news of their engagement in The Times in January 2022. 

According to the announcement via Hello!, “The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.” 

The actress opened up about the tragic death of her fiance in 2017 and revealed that she now calls herself a widow after he died. “I never lost hope. No. I’m not exaggerating when I say that John did not complain once, never, not once, and that gave us strength. It’s what keeps you going, that positivity – to never lose that hope for a miracle. I couldn’t have done it any other way,” she told The Guardian of his cancer battle, acknowledging there were similarities between her own life and the character Mary on Downton Abbey. 

She said: “We were engaged and married at heart, and so I do consider myself a widow.” After losing a battle with a rare form of cancer in 2016, the 34-year-old died in Marymount Hospital in Cork, Ireland.