Who Is Alessandro Nivola's Wife, Emily Mortimer?

Alessandro Nivola has been in the news lately for his starring role as Dickie Moltisanti in "The Sopranos" prequel "The Many Saints of Newark." In a GQ interview with Nivola, the character actor talked about the "career-defining" role of Dickie, the father of Christopher Moltisanti, who's a father figure to Tony Soprano. Per GQ, Nivola developed a special bond with co-star Michael Gandolfini, the son of the late James Gandolfini. Nivola explained Michael was challenged by playing Tony Soprano, while he faced his career's biggest role. Nivola said, "We both were handling a lot of pressure, for different reasons."

Nivola is married to British actor Emily Mortimer. In addition to acting, The New York Times reported Mortimer made her directorial debut in 2021 with the Amazon series "The Pursuit of Love," starring Lily James and Emily Beecham. She and Nivola have been married since 2003 after they met on the 2000 film "Love's Labour's Lost." Nivola told Inquirer, "I asked her out. We spent the night and, we've been together ever since." 

Nivola gushed to The Guardian on one of the reasons his marriage to fellow actor Mortimer works: "The upside is that you're with somebody who is incredibly passionate and creative and original-minded and curious about people and characters in ways that sometimes people in more conventional jobs aren't." So, what else is there to know about their relationship?

Emily Mortimer and her husband Alessandro Nivola have a love story that could be a romantic comedy. During an interview with Inquirer, Nivola revealed how he got Mortimer's phone number. He was living in Los Angeles next door to another New York City transplant, Adam Cohen, the son of songwriter Leonard Cohen. When Nivola told his neighbor he was going to London for work, Adam gave Nivola the number of a woman he met there who never called him back, who was "most gorgeous girl in London."

When "The Many Saints of Newark" star arrived in London, he discovered the beautiful woman his friend raved about was Mortimer, one of his co-stars! Nivola told Inquirer that once he got on set, he immediately found Mortimer. They went on a date two weeks later and have been together since 2000. They married three years after meeting, and the couple shares a son, Sam, who is 18, and an 11-year-old daughter, May Rose.

Despite years living in the U.S., Mortimer pines for her English home. She told Express, "I'm married to a man I really like who lives in Brooklyn. I do love him ... I miss home terribly and come here as often as I can. If someone says go and fetch a postage stamp from London, I'd be like, 'OK I'll be right back'."

Emily Mortimer is well-known for her work in the movies "Match Point," "Shutter Island," "Lars and The Real Girl," "Mary Poppins Returns," "Hugo," and more. But in the United Kingdom, the "Notting Hill" actor is also famous as the daughter of British "national treasure," Sir John Mortimer. According to The Independent, Sir John was a human rights attorney, playwright, screenwriter, and author of "Rumpole of the Bailey" book series and TV shows. Emily's legendary father died in 2009.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Emily says her latest project, "The Pursuit of Love," was inspired by her famous father. The Amazon limited series is based on Nancy Mitford's 1945 novel, a brutal satire about the English upper class. Emily said, "Every single part of this has been influenced by my dad and the way he saw life. That kind of resolute and determined lack of earnestness that Nancy [Mitford] had, an absolute allergy to it, my dad had. You know: that you can be anything as long as you're not boring." In her interview, Emily shared that she still misses her father, explaining, "I feel very sad that he's not here any more."

In a RadioTimes interview, Mortimer shared another detail about her dad, saying, "Both as a criminal defense lawyer and a writer, my dad really understood that people are flawed and the flaws are to be celebrated ... the messiness of life and forgiving it and celebrating it — well, that's something Nancy and my dad also had in common."