Irish actress Sinéad Cusack had a 10-year relationship with Tom Stoppard, according to an official biography of the playwright. The affair ended in 2007 after Cusack was reunited with her son, the Dun Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett, whom she had given up for adoption.
Cusack, who was interviewed by Oxford professor Hermione Lee for the biography Tom Stoppard: A Life, said “a window opened” in her long-term friendship with the Czech-born British playwright in about 1997. At the time, Stoppard’s relationship with actress Felicity Kendal was ending, and Cusack’s marriage to actor Jeremy Irons was said to be “under great strain”. Cusack is quoted as saying Stoppard had always brought colour to her life, but now “a different shade entered the colour”.
Lee writes: