Anna Friel is ‘stronger’ after splitting up with Army Major boyfriend

Anna Friel is one of this country’s most successful actresses, but she’s struggled to find lasting love off screen.

And now I can reveal that the Marcella star has split up with her long-term boyfriend, Regimental Corporal Major Mark Jaworski, who has previously served alongside Princes William and Harry.

‘I’m coming through it and I’m stronger – I’ve done a lot of self-work… It happens to the best of us,’ Friel confirms. ‘Some relationships will get stronger [during lockdown] and some will just not stand the test of time.’

Emmy award-winning Friel, 44, started going out with Jaworski, 42, in 2018 after they met at a charity dinner in Windsor, where he served with the Life Guards Regiment of the Household Cavalry at Combermere Barracks, while William and Harry were members of its Blues and Royals section.

Shaven-headed Jaworski served with distinction in Iraq and Bosnia and colleagues describe him as a ‘born leader’ with expertise in close-quarters combat and weapons training.

He was promoted last year and now teaches recruits at the Army Training Centre in Pirbright, Surrey. The 6ft 2in soldier split from his wife in 2007.

Friel adds: ‘Heartbreak is the worst feeling, because you think it’s never going to go away, but if you can get through a time like this – when you can’t distract yourself, you can’t go out and meet people or go to the pub – you can do anything. I find walking and crying helps!’

She went out for nine years with Harry Potter actor David Thewlis, with whom she has a 15-year-old daughter, and later courted Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans.

The former Brookside actress, who has also dated singers Darren Day and Robbie Williams, owns a Georgian townhouse near Windsor Great Park.

Forget the last-ditch trade talks. The real Brexit bother for Boris Johnson is coming from his father, Stanley.

He’s irked about travel restrictions that will come into force on January 1, preventing Britons from spending more than 90 days in every six-month period at a holiday home in the EU. Stanley owns a villa in Greece.

‘This is an issue a lot of people, myself included, are taking up,’ former I’m A Celebrity contestant Stanley tells me.

‘It’s very complicated. This is a problem for many thousands of people. Representations are being made to the Government.

They are going to have to tell us how to handle this.’