Emma Thompson Recalls Donald Trump’s Date Request on Day of Divorce Decree

On August 8, 2025, Emma Thompson, 66, shared a surprising anecdote at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where she received the Leopard Club Award for her career achievements. Speaking during a panel, as reported by The Telegraph and Variety, Thompson revealed that on the same day her divorce from Kenneth Branagh was finalized in 1995, she received a call from then-businessman Donald Trump, now 79, asking her out. The incident occurred while she was in a trailer on the set of the 1998 film Primary Colors.

Thompson recounted Trump saying, “Hello, this is Donald Trump… I’d love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.” Initially thinking it was a prank, she responded, “Well, that’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you.” She speculated that Trump, recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples, in 1997, had staff searching for “suitable” dates, noting, “I realized that on that day, my divorce decree had come through… a nice divorcée, that’s what he was looking for.” Jokingly, she added, “I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell. I could have changed the course of American history,” while calling his access to her trailer number “stalking,” per The Telegraph.

Thompson and Branagh, 64, married in 1989 after meeting on the set of Fortunes of War (1987) but separated in 1995 following Branagh’s affair with Helena Bonham Carter. Thompson later married Greg Wise in 2003, whom she met on Sense and Sensibility (1995), and they have two children: Tindyebwa “Tindy” Agaba and Gaia, 25, who joined her at Locarno. Trump, after divorcing Ivana Trump and Maples, married Melania Trump in 2005.

The story, also covered by PEOPLE and The Independent, amused festival attendees, with X posts like @FilmUpdates praising Thompson’s wit. Her upcoming thriller The Dead of Winter premiered at the festival, further highlighting her enduring career.