Mr Selfridge star says bankruptcy publicity was 'mean'

(Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Amanda Abbington - the long-term partner of Hollywood star Martin Freeman - has called it 'mean' and upsetting that her bankruptcy woes went public.

The Mr Selfridge star, who is set to appear with Martin in a new series of BBC1 detective drama Sherlock, was declared bankrupt earlier this year over a £120,000 tax bill.

The 39-year-old, whose Hobbit star partner is said to be worth £10 million, told the Radio Times: "It's fine, it's being sorted out. It was a big mistake and I'm sorting it out right now.

"It's being paid off now. I would never want to go through this again. But I'm paying it off."

The actress said: "It was just me not managing my finances properly. I was putting some money away (to pay tax), but not all of it. I was working one year and not working another year. So I was using the money I'd saved... It will be annulled in a couple of months."

Asked whether it was important for her to fix the problem on her own and not rely on her movie-star partner, she said: "Yeah, oh god, yeah. And it just got out of hand. I never wanted to avoid my taxes. The thing that upset me was it's nobody's business.

"But it becomes public because they put it on something called The London Gazette and then people find out. It's mean."

Amanda, who can currently be seen in BBC1 drama Case Histories and is set to appear in Sherlock and the new series of Mr Selfridge, joked that "People will hate me!" because of her on-screen ubiquity.

"They'll be like, 'Oh, no, it's her again. Jeez! Martin Freeman's on the side of buses, she's all over my television - they can just ...off!'", she added.

Pictures from the set of Sherlock, which showed her wearing a wedding dress, sparked rumours that her character could be set to marry Freeman's alter-ego, Dr John Watson.

Asked about the rumours, she said: "Was I marrying (lovelorn pathologist) Molly maybe? I put that (idea) on Twitter and they all went mad, all the little Sherlock nuts. Not mad. They're very sweet girls. But there is a fandom..."

 

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Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.