Sienna Miller has opened up about her "completely traumatic" experience of being sent to boarding school as a child following her parents' divorce.
The actress, 42, was just eight years old when her father, American art dealer Edwin, and former model mother Josephine, split, and she was packed off to the prestigious Heathfield School in Ascot, which costs £42,489 a year.
The all-girls institution, boasting sprawling grounds and a swimming pool, has notable alumni such as model Amber Le Bon, socialite Daphne Guinness, and TV star Susannah Constantine.
Speaking on Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast, Miller said: “I was tiny, and it was too young. It was, on paper, a really idyllic-looking place.
“It was a manor house, and there were only 52 girls. But that first night, you’re in a room with ten girls you’ve never met, in metal beds with tweed blankets over the top, and it’s lights out at seven. It’s traumatic, it’s completely traumatic.”
The mother-of-two went on to describe the far less glamorous side of boarding school life, particularly the meals: “They used to feed us Spam on Tuesdays, and you’d have to finish your plate, you’d have to eat everything
“I remember sticking it in my pockets and finding dried bits of Spam in my pocket – which was lovely.”
Miller’s parents, who also have daughter, fashion designer Savannah, 45, had a complicated family dynamic after their separation.
Savannah, in 2023, revealed that their father, Edwin, was battling Alzheimer's disease. In an emotional Instagram post, she shared a picture of her father and wrote: “Here he is... my papa, the man with the deepest heart, wisest words and the most incredible hug giver to ever live. I miss him beyond description."
She continued: “As his Alzheimer’s progresses and he slowly withdraws from the world, my heart aches for this man. His hugs are still as deep, thank God, but the life and spark, that was all-pervading, has gone out.”
The Miller siblings have rallied around their father as he battles dementia. Earlier in 2023, Sienna and Savannah joined together in New York to spend time with their father and brothers.
Savannah shared: “For the first time in six years, we’re all together with our dad. A lot has changed in that time, with his declining health, but at the same time, nothing at all. Love feels the same, as deep and true as it ever did.”
Following Edwin's divorce from Sienna and Savannah’s mother, he married British interior designer Kelly Hoppen, who has said that she continues to see Sienna and Savannah as daughters, despite the end of her marriage to their father.
Hoppen, 64, reflected on the challenges of being a stepmother in the 1990s: "When I used to stand at the school gates, I was frowned upon like I was the other woman, and it was tough for me."
In 2020, Hoppen explained in Mail on Sunday’s YOU magazine: “She [Savannah] and her sister Sienna are and will always remain two of the most precious people in my life – even though I have been divorced from their father Edwin for 17 years. She calls me Mama K and I call her Sasa.
She and Sienna always send me cards and flowers on Mother’s Day, which really touches my heart.”
