Brenda Blethyn, who will play Vera Stanhope in ITV’s Vera for the last time in 2025, married art director, Michael Mayhew, in 2010 after divorcing Alan Blethyn in 1973
Vera star, Brenda Blethyn, has been married to husband, Michael Mayhew, for 14 years after meeting the art director in 1975.
The award-winning actress, 78, who will reprise her role as plucky detective Vera Stanhope in ITV’s Vera for the last time next year, met Michel in 1975. At the time, Brenda was making waves on the stage after winning a competition to study at drama school in Guildford. However, she had just come out of a painful marriage to Alan Blethyn, who left her for another woman.
Recalling the start of her career, Brenda told Radio 4’s Saturday Live podcast: “I was 27, something like that and I was married. But at the time, I was accepted on the course at Guilford and actually [I was] going in the September [and] my marriage broke up. “
She added: “My entire life changed, my prospects, my job, my bank balance, where I lived, my friends. Everything changed, and it was quite a brave thing to do, but I’m so glad I did it.”
Brenda married Alan when she was just 19. Opening up about her relationship during a candid 2013 interview with The Guardian, the actress, who was the youngest of nine children, shared: “My brothers looked after me and protected me from predators – so well that I was quite innocent sexually when I came to marry for the first time at 19.”
Sadly, just nine years after saying ‘I do’, Brenda and Alan parted ways, after he allegedly found love elsewhere. While the marriage did not last and ended in 1973, the actress kept her first husband’s last name as her stage name – replacing her maiden name of the equally fabulous, Brenda Bottle.
Showing no hard feelings toward her former spouse, Brenda, revealed: “My first husband, Alan Blethyn, just fell for someone else. I was devastated when he left, but he really was a lovely fella – and the other lady is nice too. It was just one of those things.”
She then started dating British art director Michael in 1975 – and they were together for decades before getting married. After essentially having a 35-year engagement, the couple finally tied the knot in 2010 – after deciding it would be ‘the sensible thing to do’.
Brenda explained to the Radio Times in 2021: “We were getting on a bit and it seemed the sensible thing to do. Neither of us were going anywhere so it just presents a problem if one of us pops our clogs.”
Starring as one the TV’s most esteemed detectives for 14 series, Brenda broke fans’ hearts when it was revealed DCI Stanhope would be hanging up her hat next year.
Filming for Vera’s final instalment kicked off at the end of May, taking Brenda and the team across various locations including Blyth, Gateshead, Hartlepool, South Shields, and Ashington, with some of the concluding scenes shot in the quaint village of Glanton in Northumberland. While viewers are eagerly awaiting the premiere date for Vera’s last series, ITV is yet to confirm when it will air.
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .