The ITV wartime drama series Foyle’s War featured Honeysuckle Weeks as Samantha Stewart, afterward known as Wainwright. She appeared on the program from 2002 until 2010, and then in 2013 and 2015.
In television shows including The Bill, Close Relations, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Death in Paradise, and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Honeysuckle Weeks has also played a prominent role.
In the BAFTA Award-winning detective series Foyle’s War, which is based in Hastings and stars Michael Kitchen as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, Honeysuckles made a reputation for herself by playing Sam Stewart, the driver. The actress appears to be working on fewer projects lately, despite having been in several other regional TV shows and movies like Lorna Doone, My Brother Tom, Red Mercury, and The Wicker Tree.
Find out if she’s considering a break or possibly retiring. Also read about her background, her acting career, her family, her marriage, and her most recent professional and personal endeavors.
Childhood of Honeysuckles Weeks
Honeysuckle Weeks, a British actress, was born in Cardiff on August 1, 1979, and raised in a farmhouse in Chichester and Petworth, both in West Sussex. Her real name is Honeysuckle Susan Weeks.
Susan Wade Weeks, the mother of Weeks, once worked as a copywriter, and Robin Weeks is the owner of an advertising firm.
Her mother has worked as extras in movies including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Good Year, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Arthur and the Invisibles, among others. She was briefly a Conservative candidate for York. Her parents also came from wealthy families. Honeysuckle was 13 when they divorced.
Weeks, who is now 42, grew up in a liberal household despite her family’s traditional heritage. In actuality, she had a largely perfect childhood and adolescence. She also identified as a tomboy; Honeysuckle and her sister played Swallows and Amazons frequently on their private lake.
Her parents gave her the name of a fragrant climbing shrub that was in bloom when she was born.
At Brighton’s girls’ school Roedean, she pursued acting studies. Weeks continued her education by enrolling in Pembroke College in Oxford to pursue a degree in English, from which she graduated in 2001.
Honeysuckle Weeks (Pinterest)How did Honeysuckle Weeks get into acting?
Weeks began her acting career at the age of 6, when a children’s talent agency spotted her, her sister, and her brother.
Her mother used to accompany her to London auditions before that. For her and her two siblings, her parents had decided on “acting.” They supported their kids’ interest in drama from a very young age. It appears that they both had acting aspirations.
Weeks’ first experience on stage was in a school production of The Wizard of Oz, where he played a munchkin. Her mother eventually enrolled her in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s youth theater.
The West Sussex native claimed in an interview that The Wind in the Willows was her first professional role, earning her 3 pounds for each performance. She performed as a hedgehog, duck, and stoat in the show.
Her Early Children’s Acting Projects
One day after attending an audition, Weeks was offered a part as a teenager in the BBC children’s show Goggle Eyes.
When the Sylvia Young Agency discovered her and eventually persuaded her to try out for Goggle Eyes, she had recently lost the part for a West End production of Les Miserables. Her sister Perdita received a role in the BBC2 children’s series, along with Honeysuckles.
In the television production of Ruth Rendell’s novel A Dark Adapted Eye, the older sister, at 14 years old, played young Faith (1994). She co-starred in the series with Helena Bonham Carter. Weeks went on to play two separate teenage characters in The Bill, a long-running police “soap” on ITV, in 1995 and 1996, respectively.
Other Film, Television, and Theater Roles for Honeysuckle Weeks
The British actress made appearances in four episodes of Have Your Cake and Eat It (1997) and eighteen episodes of The Wild House in 1997 and 1998, respectively (1998).
She also made an appearance in the TV miniseries Close Relations and the Ruth Rendell mystery The Orchard Walls in 1998 as an extra. She made an appearance in a Midsomer Murders episode the following year, in 1999.
The following year, Honeysuckle was cast in the TV movie Lorna Doone as Annie Ridd, and the following year, she landed her first leading role in the big-screen drama My Brother Tom (2001), which is about two sexually abused teenagers. In 2002, Honeysuckle played Samantha Stewart in the BBC’s World War II drama Foyle’s War. Later, it would develop into the series that gave her widespread recognition.
Weeks would also feature in Red Mercury (2005), Cards on the Table (2005), and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries while a member of the cast of Foyle’s War (2007). She also appeared in The Bill, primarily as Julie Nowak.
In a 2008 theater rendition of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Honeysuckle portrayed the governess. She has also performed Eva in Alan Ayckbourn’s excellent comedy Absurd Person Singular and Viola in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Honeysuckle Weeks (Pinterest)Perdita Weeks and Rollo Weeks, her Siblings
Perdita Weeks, her younger sister, is also an actress who is best known for portraying Juliet Huggins in the CBS revival of Magnum PI.
She has also appeared in popular films such as The Invisible Woman, Penny Dreadful, and Ready Player One.
Rollo Weeks, her younger brother, was also an actor and had noteworthy roles in the movies The Little Vampire (2000) and The Thief Lord (2006). Roll, Honeysuckle’s brother, is also well-known for his roles in the miniseries Berkeley Square and the BBC series It Might Be You.
But as of late, Rollo has developed into a professional photographer who serves as the creative director for Gro Studio in London. His social media accounts feature a few collections of images taken in nature as well as sporadic stills of his sisters.
Relationship Between Lorne Stormonth-Darling and Honeysuckle Weeks
The single mother was 16 years her senior and married with a son to Lorne Stormonth-Darling when it was last reported.
He sells antiques and does hypnosis. In 2002, Weeks went on a first date with the man who would become her husband, Lorne Stormonth-Darling. After their first date, according to the former Premboke College student, he allegedly proposed to her every day.
Three years later, on vacation in the Himalayas in 2005, Honeysuckle and Stormonth-Darling exchanged vows in a Buddhist ceremony. That wedding took place in an apple orchard at an elevation of 8,000 feet.
But in July 2007, the pair got married in a more traditional church ceremony. When they returned to their native country, they considered getting married again despite pressure from both sets of parents to do things the right way.
Second Wedding They Had
Lorne and his actress wife exchanged vows a second time at St. Mary’s Church in Barlavington, West Sussex, not far from Petworth.
The Oxford graduate was dressed in a £280 medieval-inspired gown that she had purchased from an antique store in Hastings. Honeysuckle smiles as she recalls Lorne’s offer to give her a “revolting garnet knuckle-duster ring.” The ring was created by her infant father.
After their wedding ceremony, the newlyweds embarked on the first stage of their journey to Zanzibar for their honeymoon via hot-air balloon. But three miles from the destination, the weather suddenly deteriorated, and the balloon crashed-landed in a cornfield, narrowly missing a lake. However, they chose not to inform their parents of the incident.
After their second marriage, they moved into a modest cottage that Honeysuckle purchased in 2004. They now reside in a two-bedroom home in Kensal Green, London, along with their Tibetan Mastiff, Kensal.
Wade, their son, was born in 2011 and the two of them are parents.
Weeks and Lorne attended the Same College Together Before Getting Married
Before they even began dating, Lorne and Honeysuckles were already acquainted.
Since 1999, when Weeks was a student at Oxford and he was a friend of her flatmate’s parents, she had been acquainted with Lorne, the son of a retired City broker.
The Goggle Eyes actress claims that before settling on Weeks, her now-husband would hang out “to attempt to locate a younger girlfriend” and even make advances toward her pal.
Is Lorne Stormonth-Darling Still Married to Honeysuckle Weeks?
In January 2019, Dailymail reported that Stormonth-Darling, the former child stage actress and the father of her son, had ended their marriage.
This came after the Foyle’s War actor shared a video on Instagram with the caption “By bye marriage,” showing a sign with the initials L&H and pink hearts burning on a campfire.
However, that was the only occasion when either the husband or the wife discussed their marriage. Therefore, it’s unclear whether the couple has genuinely broken up or has already made up behind closed doors.
Weeks’ Ex-girlfriend Perished In a Car Accident Once
Even though she had been married to a hypnotist for a long time, Lorne wasn’t her first romance that the public was aware of.
When Honeysuckle was a young woman, she was engaged to poet and musician Anno Birkin. But before the wedding, he passed away in a vehicle accident just before turning 21.
Additionally, she had a brief relationship with actor Hugh Grant.
Additionally, she once went on a date with Hugh Grant, a fellow British actor she met at a millennium party held at London’s Groucho Club.
She didn’t call him after their first date, even though they had dinner at the members-only Soho House. Weeks claims she didn’t think the Love Actually actor would want to hear from her again for this reason.
Once, Honeysuckle Weeks Vanished
Honeysuckle’s family reported her missing to the police in July 2016.
They claimed to have last seen the actress in Chichester, a West Sussex city when they reported this to the police. Fortunately, the authorities located her a day after her family members reported her missing at 10 p.m. on Thursday.
At 7:45 p.m. on Friday, the police claimed they found Ms. Weeks “well and well” at a relative’s residence in London. Weeks reportedly told her relatives that she was worried before going missing.
She had, however, previously been the focus of a police investigation. Ms. Weeks had to wear an electronic tag and was prohibited from driving for four months earlier that year after being stopped by the police for speeding on the A3 in southwest London.
She had also been given a monthly nighttime restriction by the court. Furthermore, Wade, her then five-year-old son, was in the back seat when she was caught speeding.
Previously, Honeysuckle Fought Weight Loss
Honeysuckles once acknowledged having an issue with an eating disorder.
The elder sister of Perdita Weeks revealed to Dailymail in March 2008 that she had likewise been on a quest to reduce weight and become “Hollywood slim.”
Weeks admitted that she aspired to the size-zero lifestyle that at the time, female celebrities were more and more embracing.
“I used to eat very little and ran ten miles every other day. No one was keeping an eye on me when I made my first solo move to London.
admitted the Midsomer Murders star. She noted that although she wasn’t anorexic, she weighed about seven pounds and had lost three stones. But that only lasted for a short while until she lost all of her willpower.
She further said that achieving size zero would never make one happy and claimed that she enjoys chocolate and crisps to an unhealthy degree.
Honeysuckle Weeks Current Activity
The Red Mercury actress’ somewhat active Twitter account shows she is still living in Sussex even if her Facebook and Instagram accounts are quite restricted.
Weeks’ final on-screen role as an actor was playing Christy in the Maxxx series (2020). She had previously played Laura Marshall in the 2016 TV miniseries The Five and Agatha Christie in the series Frankie Drake Mysteries (2019).