James Acaster’s story about being dumped for Rowan Atkinson has resurfaced following comments from the Mr Bean star’s daughter about her parents’ divorce.
The comedian, 40, was in a two-year relationship with actress Louise Ford, 44, before their unexpected split in 2014. A year later, he discovered she had moved on with Atkinson after spotting a full-page story in The Sun on Sunday.
During a 2019 stand-up set, Acaster joked that he was likely the only person in history to be left for Mr Bean, telling the audience: “I found out a year after we split up.
“I opened the newspaper, and there it was. No one else has ever been left for Mr. Bean.”
The pair had been living together when she starred alongside Atkinson, now 70, in Quartermaine’s Terms at Wyndham’s Theatre in 2013.
Their relationship allegedly cooled as she grew closer to Atkinson, who had recently separated from his wife of 24 years, Sunetra Sastry.
Acaster went on: “I'm a goddamn saint to have kept this in the back pocket so long. It’s my job to say things that are funny and the funniest thing that’s ever happened to anyone, happened to me and I put it on the backburner out of respect.
“Until you get left for Mr Bean, you don’t realise how frequently he pops up. There’s a shop two streets from my house that sells masks of his face. There’s nowhere where I’m going to go that he’s not there.”
Acaster wasn’t the only one affected by Atkinson’s romance with Ford—his daughter, Lily Sastry, has now opened up about how her parents’ divorce sent her into a period of “darkness” and “chaos.”
Atkinson and his ex-wife, former BBC makeup artist Sunetra Sastry, officially divorced in 2015 after 24 years of marriage, though they had been living separately since 2014.
Sastry, 67, was granted a swift divorce on the grounds of his “unreasonable behavior,” and Atkinson has been with Ford ever since.
Lily, now a professional artist, revealed that the breakdown of her parents’ marriage left her feeling isolated in her 20s.
“I went through so much chaos and loneliness in my twenties. Now I am 30, I can see clearly where I was at and what was happening inside me during the darkest days,” she wrote in a social media post.
She added: “I was so lost, and only really started to feel vaguely normal in my late twenties. I have always been trapped between worlds; do not belong here, but also don't belong there.”
The family upheaval led Lily to change her surname from Atkinson to Sastry in 2017, fueling speculation of a rift with her father, despite his financial support for her music career.
Now based in London, she recently showcased her work at her first solo art exhibition in December.
She continued in her post: “It's hard to find out who you are in the midst of no friends, a broken family, and no idea how to navigate making music and trying to understand the world.
“It has taken me years to figure out my life and who I am, as well as become the best person I can be. I have made countless mistakes, and been hurt, lost, and alone many a time.
“Art was my guiding light. The thing that made all the suffering worth it; as I was working towards a goal, a dream.”
Atkinson and Sastry are also parents to their son, Ben, 31, who serves as an officer in the Royal Gurkha Regiment.
Since moving on with Ford, Atkinson has expanded his family, welcoming a daughter named Isla.
