Keira Christina Knightley was born on March 26, 1985, in Teddington, London, England. Sharman Macdonald and Will Knightley, her parents, were both theater performers. Although her mother registered her daughter under the name “Kiera,” she actually meant to call her “Keira.” As a result of her parents’ early exposure to ballet and theater, Knightley developed a keen interest in acting. She first requested an agent when she was three years old, motivated by the fact that both of her parents had them, and she eventually got one when she was six. In the 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Knightley played Elizabeth Swann. The film, based on the Disney theme park attraction, revolves around infamous buccaneer Jack Sparrow and blacksmith Will Turner rescuing Swann from 18th-century pirates in possession of a cursed golden medallion. Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski chose Knightley for her “indescribable quality reminiscent of Hollywood’s heyday.”
Knightley underestimated the amount of stunt work required and assumed she’d be mostly sitting in carriages; at one point during filming, she stood for two days on a plank and turned down a stunt double’s offer to jump off the platform for the scene. Pirates was expected to fail at the box office despite star names like Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and a $135 million budget. Knightley was pessimistic about its prospects. The movie debuted at the top of the box office and went on to earn $654 million worldwide, making it one of the year’s highest-grossing releases. Knightley’s “strident and confident” physical assurance was compared to Nicole Kidman’s by Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, and she and Bloom were described as appealing leads by Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club.
Keira Knightley husband
Previously, Knightley dated actors Del Synnott, Jamie Dornan, and Rupert Friend. In February 2011, she began dating musician James Righton. They tied the knot on May 4, 2013, in Mazan, France. For the ceremony, Knightley wore a Chanel knee-length grey tulle bustier gown with Karl Lagerfeld accessories. Knightley wore a lace Valentino gown with pink floral embroidery to a second wedding ceremony for close friends.
Keira Knightley children
She and her husband have two daughters, born in 2015 and 2019. Canonbury, Islington, London is where the family lives.
Keira Knightley parent
Keira Christina Knightley was born in the London suburb of Teddington on March 26, 1985, to stage actors Will Knightley and Sharman Macdonald. She was supposed to be named “Kiera,” an anglicized form of “Kira,” after her father’s favorite Soviet figure skater, Kira Ivanova; however, Macdonald misspelled the name when she registered her daughter’s birth certificate, writing the e before the i. Her father is from England, and her mother is from Scotland and Wales.
Keira Knightley siblings
Caleb Knightley is Knightley’s older brother, and Macdonald worked as a playwright after her acting career ended. Following the birth of her brother, Knightley’s parents faced significant financial difficulties; her father, a “middling” actor, agreed to a second child only if her mother sold a script first. Her parents’ varying degrees of success, however, did not deter Knightley’s interest in the profession.
