There was no obvious sign of a wedding ring or any affection. Walking side by side, albeit with a large symbolic gap between them, actress Amy Nuttall and her husband Andrew Buchan were spotted this week running errands near their home, sending a message to viewers that they were giving another chance to his troubled marriage. .
Amy, 41, who recently appeared in hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office first called off her 11-year marriage to Andrew, 45, best known for her role in ITV drama Broadchurch, in December 2022. upon learning of her affair with actress Leila Farzad, her co-star on the BBC show Better.
Heartbroken by his deception, she confronted him and kicked him out of the family home in Buckinghamshire, which they shared with their two children.
Actress Amy Nuttall first called off her 11-year marriage to Andrew Buchan after learning of his affair with a co-star from BBC show Better.
They got back together the following July, but the reunion only lasted a month before Andrew packed his bags again.
Stoic and dignified, the former Emmerdale and Downton Abbey actress refused to get carried away with the topic of her husband’s betrayal.
But in his typically low-key style, last month he gave an interview to the financial pages of a Sunday newspaper in which he subtly revealed that they were back together.
When asked to quantify his income, he replied: ‘Generally speaking, in the last financial year, what can I tell you? — less than a hundred thousand dollars, but I’m married, so it all goes in one pot.
‘So it’s not so scary because I can lean on that.
“I co-own our comfortable family home…” confirming that she and Andrew are very much together again.
A week later, the couple were seen enjoying a day out in Windsor along with their children and Nuttall’s father Andrew.
A friend said: “Things aren’t exactly going great but both Amy and Andrew are trying to make it work.”
‘They once loved each other deeply and are trying to recreate that. They also have two young children to stay together for, so they are trying to move on.
“It must be hard though, Andrew really did have a full and proper affair, and forgiving and forgetting after that is hard.”
Few would disagree. In fact, the fact that Amy is back with Andrew for the second time has led fans of the actress to wonder if she’s a borderline saint or a doormat.
The truth is that Amy has fought hard for her marriage and is nothing more than a passive victim.
When the story of his affair with co-star Leila, 42, who is also married, broke, Andrew was said to be incandescent with rage and did everything in his power to keep it out of the papers.
Andrew had cheated on Amy with Leila Farzad, who was married to James Maizels at the time of their affair.
He had hoped to keep his private life and his indiscretions firmly out of the spotlight.
But, after discovering he had bought a pair of cheeky knickers just before Christmas, which were not her size, Amy is said to have angrily confronted him.
After kicking him out, she endured a torrid Christmas while she thought about her next move.
‘The penny started to drop over time. She was away a lot, which wasn’t unusual due to the nature of her job, but at one point Amy realized that she had been staying in hotels very close to home and wondered why.
“She tried to keep her feelings under control over the festive period to allow her family to have a quiet Christmas, and asked her friends not to tell anyone else.
‘But by the following February things had turned sour, she was furious and decided to tell some friends it was over, some then spoke to the press. ‘Amy even detailed how she had found some panties intended for Leila, and that’s how She discovered that he was cheating on her.
“Amy told her friends in the media industry that she was happy that it was coming to light.”
When the reports were published, Buchan hired lawyers to send legal letters to the press, but tellingly, says a friend, “they were sent by him, not by the two of them as a couple.”
A friend told the Mail: ‘Andrew has lived for many years with the reputation of being a truly committed family man and an adoring husband to Amy.
Of course, when the matter began I hoped it would never, ever become public. He spent some time outside and thought he wouldn’t get caught.
“Then Amy found the panties.” . .’
The story was one of the most amazing celebrity love triangles in some time.
Amy and Andrew married in September 2012 in their home county of Lancashire, five years after meeting through friends. They fell in love and quickly became one of the most recognizable couples on the red carpet.
Before settling down with Andrew, Amy, who was catapulted to fame in ITV soap Emmerdale in 2000, had a colorful love life, dating the likes of Welsh TV presenter Steve Jones and Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay.
Meanwhile, Leila, best known for her role in the drama I Hate Suzie, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA, was married to James Maizels at the time of their affair and the couple have a ten-year-old daughter. However, just a few weeks later, she returned to her husband.
Five months after the bombshell, Amy and Andrew also gave their marriage another chance.
It was claimed that Amy had set her husband seven strict rules to follow after their reunion to rekindle their relationship. Known as the ‘777 method’, they included having full access to each other’s phones, having a date night once a week and going on a couple’s holiday every seven months.
Amy also apparently banned all non-work contact with her co-stars and demanded that Andrew stay in touch via FaceTime whenever he worked outside. However, she was unsuccessful and a month later it was revealed that they had broken up again, apparently after Andrew broke the rules.
Amy suffered even more pain when her mother, Elaine, died last September, four months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
She was said to have been her daughter’s “rock” during her marital problems, and Amy honored her by releasing the charity single, Thank You Mother, in March, in collaboration with The Brain Tumor Charity to raise awareness and funds for the charity. . A friend said: “When Amy lost her mother, it wasn’t long after that she broke up with Andrew after trying again. She was in a terrible state and cried every day.
Seven months later, Amy accepted Andrew again.
As for what the future holds, the couple’s friends aren’t sure if they’ll be able to put the past behind them.
A friend said: ‘You’ll notice Amy wasn’t wearing her wedding ring this week, while Andrew was. You have to ask yourself what that really means.
“There’s a lot of water under the bridge here and it’s going to take time for things to go back to the way they were, if they ever do.”
Neither have been inundated with acting roles, although Amy revealed this week that she was offered the chance to star in last year’s Strictly, an offer she politely declined. Talking about her decision, she said: “Never say never, but I don’t think it’s for me.” I’m more of the audience side: I enjoy watching it.’
Meanwhile, Andrew made his screenwriting debut on the ITV drama Passenger.
If their reconciliation doesn’t last, Amy could find herself without the support network she previously relied on because sources say some of her friends have “washed their hands” of the situation after she got her husband back.
“A lot of Amy’s friends think she’s crazy for taking him back,” one tells me. ‘They are exhausted because she leans on them and then ignores all advice. She was broken when she found out what had been going on and she needed them.
“With Andrew there’s always some explanation about why it’s going to be different this time, something they’ve implemented or something they’ve promised. It’s the same old story. We’re waiting with bated breath to see if that old story repeats itself.”