Alice Evans claims husband Ioan Gruffudd ‘has announced he is to leave his family’

In an interview to promote his ITV drama last year, Ioan Gruffudd hinted that a heavy work schedule had taken its toll on his marriage.

That relationship appears to have come to a very public end as Gruffudd’s actress wife, Alice Evans, alleged on social media that he was leaving her and declared: “Hell yes I will wash my linen in public.”

In an emotional Twitter post, later deleted, Evans claimed that her “beloved husband” had informed her that the marriage was over.

The pair have been married since 2007, after meeting when they both appeared in Disney’s 102 Dalmatians. The British actors live in Los Angeles with their two daughters.

Evans tweeted: “Sad news. My beloved husband/soulmate of 20 years, Ioan Gruffudd, has announced he is to leave his family, starting next week. Me and our young daughters are very confused and sad. We haven’t been given a reason except that he ‘no longer loves me’. I’m so sorry.”

The tweet later disappeared, only for Evans to post a second one that alleged: “Hi there. I didn’t delete this tweet from a few hours ago about him leaving. He did. From my account. And hell yes when I am being gaslit and mentally tortured then hell yes I will wash my linen in public.” That was also deleted shortly afterwards.

Gruffudd has not responded directly to the allegations made by Evans.

But last night the couple released a joint statement which read: “As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for our family and we remain committed to our children. Thank you for respecting our privacy.”

The couple have been apart for lengthy periods in recent years, as Gruffudd’s career took him around the world. He first made his name with a supporting role in Titanic and as the star of the television costume drama, Hornblower.

Since 2017 he has filmed three series of an Australian show, Harrow, in which he plays a forensic pathologist. He was on set for several months last year while Evans remained in California homeschooling their children.

In the months before lockdown he filmed the second series of ITV’s Liar. Promoting that drama, he admitted that his marriage had suffered on account of his busy work schedule. “I think we’ve struggled the past four years, making time for each other because physically we’re apart,” he said.

Asked if he had taken his turn at full-time parenthood, he said: “No. I think I did it for a week and thought I was really cool. Alice had come back, she had been away for a week. I was showing off – ‘The kids are in bed’ – and she [said], ‘Yeah, you’ve done one week, Ioan, try six months.’”

Evans made headlines in 2017 when she claimed to have turned down sexual advances from Harvey Weinstein early in her career, and wondered if by doing so she had ensured that she and Gruffudd were blacklisted by the mogul.

Reflecting on the episode last year, she told the Telegraph that she had gone public with her Weinstein story on the spur of the moment while scrolling through Twitter one night, and later “started to regret” that decision.

Evans said Gruffudd had begged her not to give interviews about her experience and found himself asked about constantly while trying to promote his own work. “He worried that this topic would never, ever go away for us,” she wrote.

However, last year Gruffudd insisted that he was “very proud of Alice” for speaking out.