Who is Cillian Murphy’s wife Yvonne McGuinness and does she have kids with the 28 Years Later star?
CILLIAN Murphy has been acting since the 1990s, and is best known for playing Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
With all eyes on the star of the hotly-anticipated 28 Years Later movie, many are curious about his personal life, including his marriage to Yvonne McGuiness. Here's her story.
Born in Kilkenny, Ireland, on October 12, 1972, Yvonne McGuiness is an artist who specialises in mounting various installations of different media, including performance, print, video, and sound.
She is reportedly the niece of Fianna Fáil politician John McGuinness.
According to one of her bios, some of her works deal with "notions of portrayal of the self and with deception, dealing with the sublimated desire for self-expression of the artist and the tension between revelation and concealment."
It's also indicated on her website that she is an artist "working with place, time, and community."
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While she's not an actor like her husband, she has made a string of short films, including This is Between Us, Charlie's Place, and Procession.
Meeting Cillian Murphy
Yvonne and Cillian Murphy go way back, having met back in 1996 in Dublin, during a gig with one of his amateur bands.
He was a 20-year-old student at the University College Cork then, and not long after, he was cast in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs.
“That time, making Disco Pigs, was kind of the most important period of my life. The people I met there remain my closest friends. Enda Walsh. Pat Kiernan [its director]. Eileen Walsh [his co-star]," Cillian told The Guardian.
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"They shaped me in terms of my tastes, in terms of what I wanted to do with my life. And it was around the same time I met my wife. She came on tour with us. It was so exciting, 20 years ago or whatever it was – we were all just kids, trying to find our way – but such a special, special time."
Married life
Yvonne and Cillian didn't marry until 2004, but the couple remains together to this day.
Per Cillian, his wife helps him maintain a sense of normalcy.
"It’s very important to have somebody like that,” he shared with People.
“My life hasn’t changed in any way, really. I still have the same friends and we go to the same places.
Becoming parents
Cillian and Yvonne have two children, Malachy, born in 2005, and Aran, born in 2007.
They initially raised them in London, but the family eventually moved to Ireland so the kids could be near their grandparents.
“We wanted them to be Irish, I suppose. It’s amazing how quickly their accents have adapted," Cillian said.
"Even within a year of moving back, they are fading into this rakish west Brit kind of thing. Which I think, hopefully, will get them lots of girls when they’re 15."
And while Cillian keeps his personal life under wraps, she would make it a point to acknowledge his family publicly.
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"Two-thirds of them are sitting down there. We had to leave one of them at home doing exams," he said during his speech at the Palm Springs International Film Awards in January 2024.
"But just thanks for putting up with me — putting up with the half me and the shadow me and the absent me, the remains of me when I'm doing a film like this or work in general. You're always there. I love it. So thanks, guys."