Rufus Sewell, 56, engaged to actress Vivian Benitez, 26 - BBC News

Rufus Sewell, 56, engaged to actress Vivian Benitez, 26

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Rufus Sewell and Vivian BenitezImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The couple appeared together at the premiere of Netflix's The Diplomat

British actor Rufus Sewell has become engaged to actress Vivian Benitez, who is 30 years his junior.

The 26-year-old US actress shared photos of the pair and her engagement ring on Instagram.

She is best known for her roles in Arsenal, Criminal Minds and Sky Dancers Grown Up.

Sewell, who played Jasper in the festive film The Holiday, has been married twice before.

The couple had been dating for two years and made only a handful of public appearances together.

On Tuesday, Benitez shared two photographs on Instagram to announce the engagement - one of Sewell kissing her on the cheek and the other a close up picture of the ring.

The photographs had the caption: "Till death (or him continuing to walk on bathmats with his outside shoes) do us part."

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Sewell has two children from previous relationships, a 21-year-old son with his ex-wife Amy Gardner who he married in 2003 and divorced in 2006, and a 10-year-old daughter with ex-girlfriend Ami Komai.

He was first married in 1999 to long-term girlfriend Yasmin Abdallah, but the couple divorced the following year.

The Holiday, the 2006 film which has become a staple film of the Christmas season, saw Sewell play Jasper, the former partner of Kate Winslet's character Iris.

Image source, Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo
Image caption,

Sewell starred opposite Kate Winslet, as her character Iris's ex partner Jasper, in 2006's The Holiday

After learning Jasper is now engaged to someone else, Iris escapes the country and rents out her cottage to Cameron Diaz's character Amanda Woods, who in turn offers Iris her large home in Los Angeles.

Sewell, who has also appeared in The Diplomat and The Man in the High Castle, is set to play Prince Andrew in a dramatisation of the Duke of York's interview on BBC Newsnight in 2019.

Then-presenter Emily Maitlis questioned the duke over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The adaptation, based on the book Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews, will also star Gillian Anderson as Maitlis.

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