
In early 2016, actor Dominic West was riding high on the back of the second successful season of The Affair — a Golden Globe-winning television drama in which he played a schoolteacher tangled in an extramarital relationship with a waitress.
Pondering the US show's premise in a now infamous interview with the Evening Standard that March, the Brit said:
"I think women should be more indulgent of affairs. I really do. It’s daft to kick someone out over a fling. Isn’t it?
"Everyone should turn a blind eye to men’s behaviour between the ages of 40 and 50. Let it all blow over."
This week, more than ever, he must be wishing that were true.
Watch: The Affair premiered in 2014 and ran for five seasons.
Rumours abound that the 50-year-old is in a relationship with fellow actor Lily James (of Downton Abbey, Cinderella and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fame), after he was seen stroking her hair and kissing her neck at a restaurant in Rome.
Neither West nor James, 31, have commented on the speculation. Nor has West's wife of 10 years, landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald.
The couple met at university and briefly dated, before reuniting after FitzGerald's first marriage ended in 2002. They now have four children between the ages of seven and 14.
Outwardly at least, there's been no indication of a split.
"I wanted to play the field."
West has often alluded to struggling with monogamy during his previous relationship with aristocrat Polly Astor, with whom he has a 22-year-old daughter, Martha.
He was the leading man in cult US drama, The Wire, at the time and seemed to relish in the cachet that afforded him off set.
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