Jessie Buckley reveals why her husband's identity remains anonymous and why he will never be able to walk a red carpet with her

For Jessie Buckley, the glaring media spotlight has never been stronger. 

Already an established star, the Irish actress has entered 2026 as the focal point of director Chloé Zhao's Hamnet - a moving portrait of English playwright William Shakespeare's relationship with wife Agnes, the couple's attempt to overcome the death of their young son and the tragedy's influence on one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, Hamlet. 

The historical drama, adapted from author Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, opened at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival to significant critical acclaim last August and has since been given a wider theatrical release across the United States and Great Britain, where it opens on January 9.

But Buckley's husband will remain notably absent from the red carpet as the actress continues to promotes her latest venture alongside Paul Mescal, who plays the Bard - and with good reason. 

While her professional life is inevitably open to public scrutiny, Buckley's life with husband Freddie at their Norfolk home remains fiercely private. 

The actress, 36, exchanged vows with Freddie, a mental health worker, in 2023, and she insists the sensitive nature of his profession means he should remain anonymous. 

Addressing their marriage in the latest edition of British Vogue, Buckley confirmed she and her husband will not be making any 'red-carpet debut in their immediate future'.

Instead, she will  attend premieres and continue her promotional work alongside co-star and close friend Mescal, with whom she developed a tight bond while playing husband and wife in Hamnet.

In order to fast track their intimacy with one another and allow them to connect 'on a bodily level' before filming commenced, Zhao had her leads take part in a tantric workshop, alongside nights out dancing to Abba at a New York club.

During the workshop the actors had to pretend to 'be' a lingam, a phallic object symbolising divine generative energy, and yoni, a representation of the female genitalia.

'The first three minutes of it were excruciatingly embarrassing,' Buckley told Vogue, but after that, 'You're like: "We've been a penis and a vagina in front of each other, so let's just go."'

The workshop worked, with critics raving about their onscreen chemistry whilst the pair have been equally effusive in their real life admiration for one another.

Buckley credits her role as Agnes with inducing her to become a mother, telling Vogue how she borrowed a prosthetic belly from production just 'to feel the weight of it', whilst pottering around her garden.

The actress explained how the harrowing storyline of Hamnet, which depicts Agnes and William's grief when they lose a child, tapped a 'deep need' in her to 'find' her own.

Of motherhood just months in, she mused: 'It's a bit like being a beetle on your back.

'A friend said to me, "Don't forget that you're also a new thing when you become a mother."'

'A lot of attention is given to this little baby, but your relationship to the world is new, your relationship with your partner is new, your relationship to your work is new.'

''I don't know what the next story is that I need to tell because it's seismic what's happened.'

See the full feature in the February issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 20th January.