Michael Gambon - Personal Life

Personal Life

Gambon married Anne Miller when he was 22, but has always been secretive about his personal life, responding to one interviewer's question about her: "What wife?" The couple lived near Gravesend, Kent, where she has a workshop. Gambon was invested by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor on 17 July 1998 for "services to drama". (Queen Elizabeth II's approval for the award was notified in the 1998 New Year Honours List.) Anne Miller thus became Lady Gambon. They have one son, Fergus, a ceramics expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

While filming Gosford Park, Gambon brought Philippa Hart on to the set and introduced her to co-stars as his girlfriend. When the affair was revealed in 2002, he moved out of the marital home and bought a bachelor pad. Hart, who worked with Gambon on the film, Sylvia in 2003, in late 2006 moved into a £500,000 terraced home in Chiswick, west London. In February 2007, it was revealed that Hart was pregnant with Gambon's child, and gave birth to son, Michael, in May 2007. On 22 June 2009 she gave birth to her second child, a boy named William, who is Gambon's third child.

Gambon is a qualified private pilot and his love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC's Top Gear programme. Gambon raced the Suzuki Liana and was driving so aggressively that it went round the last corner of his timed lap on two wheels. The final corner of the Top Gear test track has been named "Gambon" in his honour.

He appeared on the programme again on 4 June 2006, and set a time in the Chevrolet Lacetti of 1:50.3, a significant improvement on his previous time of 1:55. He clipped his namesake corner the second time, and when asked why by Jeremy Clarkson, replied, "I dunno — I just don't like it."

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