Idris Elba Once Felt Like Fame Ruined His Love Life
Actor Idris Elba has recently settled down with his current wife Sabrina Dhowre. But before finding his life partner, he felt that finding love was especially hard because of his celebrity.
Idris Elba felt inaccessible to women because of his fame
For Elba, being a famous actor was a catch-22. Although it may have attracted many women his way, his growing star-power made sustaining a relationship difficult. He asserted that it might have been much easier being in a relationship when he still had anonymity.
“Look, you probably think I’m getting lucky all the time. But there’s no way,” he once said according to News 24. “They’re all my fans. I miss the days when me and my boys could go to a barbecue, and go, ‘Who’s that shorty girl over there?'”
With his private relationships being made public due to his profession, Elba felt potential partners already had preconceived notions of the star. Which risked his relationship already having baggage in its beginning stages.
“They just have so much of who I am wrong, they feel like I must be a playboy. I must be noncommittal. I must be the kind of guy that jumps in and out. And, you know, I suppose if you look at my history or you know anything about my history or you can read on Google who I was married to or what’s happened, you know, it might appear that way. But it’s completely misunderstood,” he once told The New York Times.
In this aspect, Elba believed he wasn’t too unlike his Luther character.
“I’ve had many failed relationships but not because I’m an ass, just because there’s so many complexities to relationships and perhaps I’m very guarded, just like Luther’s guarded. And being guarded, people presume things and I often haven’t corrected them,” he said.
Idris Elba was done with love before meeting Sabrina Dhowre
After a few disappointing relationships, Elba grew jaded by the idea of love. Ironically, he was in the midst of filming the romance drama Mountain Between Us when he ran into Sabrina Dhowre.
“I was done with love. And it was there that I met Sabrina in a bar. She made me open to the idea of love again,” Elba said in an interview with The Sunday Times.
His love for Dhowre was so strong that it convinced Elba to marry again. Although, that wasn’t something in the cards for the actor at the time.
“You know, I’m 47 this year, been married and lived a full life before I even met Sabrina,” he once told Vogue. “It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, get married again. But…”
Elba confided that Dower not only opened him up to the idea of love and marriage again. She also brought him closer to people he already knew.
“Sabrina has deepened friendships with people I’ve known longer than [her], nurturing the best side of me to make me connect to my friends more,” he said.
Idris Elba proposed to Sabrina Dhowre on a film set
Elba didn’t completely expect to propose to Dhowre when he did. He originally aimed to do so on Valentine’s Day. But he ended up asking for her hand in marriage on the film set of Yardie instead.
“It was a little spontaneous, if I’m honest,” he said in a fairly recent interview with People. “I was at a cast and crew screening and among people I loved. We had all worked so hard for this project so I was like I’m doing it right now, here, today.”
The Hobbs and Shaw star described it as a nerve-racking experience for him.
“But in terms of wanting to make someone feel super special and feel my love, that was pretty romantic for me,” he said.
Elba also gave details on why he felt Dhowre was his perfect match.
“She makes me laugh and we share common goals. She makes me happy. She makes me celebrate my successes and when I’m not too sure about stuff, she makes me think,” he said.
