Emilia Fox began a new chapter among the plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew on a spring morning, telling El-Balad she finds solace in the outdoors as she rebuilds life after a public split.
Fox, 51, spoke beneath glass and leaf inside Kew’s Temperate House — which held some 10,000 individual plants and 1,500 species on the day she visited — where she also serves as an ambassador for the gardens. "Nature always helps me enormously to process and feel present," she said.
Last year Fox split from TV producer Jonathan Stadlen after four years together. "Inevitably, there is great sadness when a relationship finishes, but a year on from separating, I’m feeling positive about where I am in life and what’s to come," she told the gardens’ visitors, crediting time, work and family for much of the recovery.
She described the practicalities that carried her through: therapy she has "done for years," long stretches away working and time spent with family in Dorset. "Time is a great healer, and because I was working away from home, I had lots of time on my own to process it, feel it and privately work through it," said.
Work included a three-month stint last autumn filming the mystery crime series Signora Volpe in Italy, which she called "the greatest tonic" and a helpful distraction during a difficult period. She said work also offered purpose and a way not to overthink: "We don’t really talk about relationships there, so it’s been a good way to have purpose and not overthink things."
Family has been central. Fox shares a close bond with her 15-year-old daughter, Rose, whose father is actor Jeremy Gilley. "My daughter, Rose, and I make each other laugh a lot and always look for things that make us feel joyful and positive," she said, noting that Rose currently hopes to become a therapist and that "when she’s with me, she doesn’t have any social media."
Her recovery has been practical and domestic as well as emotional. Fox traced a love of gardening back to her first house: "It wasn’t until I got my first house, which had a garden, that I developed my own love of gardening," she said. At home she tends "the most beautiful roses, which come back year after year," and a wisteria she says is "so extraordinary that people stop in the street and take pictures." A passerby even dubbed it, "That’s the magic house."
Fox framed her experience as a mixture of sadness and steady repair. "I’m a great believer that changes come in life for a reason, even if it’s hard to see why at the time," she said, adding that she is single now and open to what's ahead: "I’m single and I love the feeling of looking forward to new beginnings from the starting point of having learnt a few things from experience." She was careful in her comments about her former partner: "We had some immensely happy times together, so I will always have good things to say about Jonathan."
There is a clear through-line in Fox’s account: therapy, close family ties, focused work and prolonged time in nature have been the tools of recovery. "I’m a keen advocate for mental wellbeing and for looking after that as much as we look after our physical wellbeing," she said, and added plainly, "I’ve done therapy for years, but the place where I’m happiest and calmest is in nature, for sure."
Fox’s visit to Kew — and the details she offered about roses, wisteria, therapy and her daughter — make the conclusion simple: she is rebuilding by design, not by accident. After last year’s split she has used work, the sea air of Dorset, therapy and the plant world at Kew to process loss and arrive at a practical, forward-looking place; she says she is feeling positive and ready for new beginnings.
