Amanda Abbington: Bankruptcy revelations ‘mean’

ACTRESS Amanda Abbington – who is the long-term partner of Hollywood actor Martin Freeman – has described reports that she has been declared bankrupt as “mean” and “upsetting”.

Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington. Picture. Getty

The star of the ITV period drama Mr Selfridge, who is set to appear with Freeman in a new series of BBC1 detective drama Sherlock, was declared bankrupt earlier this year over a £120,000 tax bill.

The 39-year-old, whose partner appeared as the central character in The Hobbit and is reported to be worth £10 million, said: “It’s fine, it’s being sorted out. It was a big mistake and I’m sorting it out right now.

“It’s being paid off now. I would never want to go through this again. But I’m paying it off.”

Asked whether it was important for her to fix the problem on her own and not rely on her movie-star partner, she said: “Yeah, oh God, yeah. And it just got out of hand.

“I never wanted to avoid my taxes. The thing that upset me was it’s nobody’s business.”

Abbington, who can currently be seen in BBC1 drama Case Histories and is set to appear in Sherlock and the new series of Mr Selfridge, joked that “People will hate me!” because of her on-screen ubiquity.

Recent photographs taken on the set of Sherlock, which showed her wearing a wedding dress, sparked rumours that her character could be set to marry Freeman’s alter-ego, Dr John Watson.

Asked about the rumours, she said: “Was I marrying [lovelorn pathologist] Molly maybe? I put that [idea] on Twitter and they all went mad, all the little Sherlock nuts. Not mad. They’re very sweet girls.”