The Ioan Gruffudd-Alice Evans split happened two weeks ago. We learned about it when Alice started tweeting that Ioan had come home and announced that he was leaving the family. Then that tweet was deleted, she claimed that he was abusing her and gaslighting her, and on and on. Many people took her word for it, and many assumed that this was another Dominic West-Lily James situation, where an actor of a certain age was screwing around with some younger woman, much to the dismay of his wife. It should be noted that Dominic West and his wife are still together though! They never even split up briefly, although she did spend some time at her family’s Irish castle without Dominic. Anyway, I wasn’t really sure what the story was with Ioan and Alice, only that she seemed like a massive pill and that he has been filming in Australia for years now, working on the TV show Harrow. He is back in LA now, where he was spotted by paparazzi last weekend, and he spoke to them:

Ioan Gruffudd has broken his silence on his ‘extremely difficult’ split from wife Alice Evans on Saturday, days after it was revealed via Twitter that their marriage was over. Still wearing his wedding ring, the Welsh actor, 47, stopped to briefly to speak with photographers as he went grocery shopping solo at Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles.

Addressing the split, he said: ‘Look, as I said before, it’s an extremely difficult time for the family, our thoughts are with our children obviously right now and I’d really respect a little bit of privacy right now, thank you.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I wonder how long he’s planning to be in LA, which is where Alice and their two daughters are based. According to the Mail, Ioan had been in Australia for months filming season 3 of Harrow, and then he only came back to LA recently. He stars in the show with Ella Newton, 30, who plays his daughter, and Anna Lise Phillips, 46, who plays his ex-wife. And so now everyone is convinced that he’s banging one of those actresses:

Love split actor Ioan Gruffudd has spoken of the close bond he developed with a co-star while filming a TV show in Australia. Ioan, 47, accused by wife Alice Evans, 49, of gaslighting her after their marriage collapsed, has gushed about blonde Ella Newton, 30.

The Welsh actor told an Australian newspaper: “I’m so lucky. We bonded almost immediately, so there’s a lot of respect there.”

She plays his daughter in Australian TV drama Harrow, while another blonde, Anna Lise Phillips, 46, plays his ex-wife. Ella, who has a boyfriend, used to play Delaney ­Renshaw — a Lolita character who tried to seduce an older man — in long-running ­Aussie soap Neighbours.

And The Sun on Sunday can reveal that Ioan, spotted in LA on Friday still wearing his wedding ring, found her equally mesmerising while filming Harrow. Ioan, who last year reprised his role as evil ­surgeon Andrew Earlham in ITV thriller Liar, said: “Ella — well, look, everyone gets branded ‘someone to watch’, but from working with her, she certainly is. You can’t take your eyes off her when she’s on screen. She’s so raw because she’s so young and inexperienced. But she’s eager to learn, eager to listen.”

Sources have revealed that Ioan spent lonely nights in the bar of the hotel where he stayed while filming in Brisbane. One said: “Ioan would often sit for hours with a whisky looking pensive. Those close to him believe that was where he decided it was over between him and Alice.”

There is no evidence to suggest Ioan was ever unfaithful.

[From The Sun]

I personally think that the British tabloids have just been poring through all of Ioan’s recent interviews and they’ve decided that he must be banging Ella, so they’re just quoting him and making sure to explicitly say that “There is no evidence to suggest Ioan was ever unfaithful.” Now, is it possible that Ioan has a side-chick in Australia? I would be shocked if he didn’t. But I’m not sure if it’s his young costar, who plays his daughter.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.