Dame Emma Thompson says her husband initially thought he would get together with Kate Winslet – but discovered he was wrong on a trip to Glastonbury.
Greg Wise and Dame Emma began dating after the end of the actress’s marriage to Sir Kenneth Branagh.
They met on the set of Sense And Sensibility, the 1995 film that also starred Winslet.
Dame Emma, 60, told The Graham Norton Show that Wise, 53, had been advised by a friend he would find romance on the set of the period drama.
“Before he did the job, he went to see a friend of his who was a bit witchy and she said he would meet his future partner on the film,” Dame Emma said.
“He assumed it wasn’t me because I was married and quite a lot older than him, so he thought it might be Kate.
“He took her to Glastonbury, and she was so bored, and he thought, ‘This isn’t going to work, who can it be?’
“Then things happened that probably shouldn’t have happened, and it’s been 25 years in May.”
Dame Emma appeared on the show in a blue, fringed outfit.
She joked: “I went into Selfridges and asked if they had anything that would make me look like a parrot.
“When I came out, I then realised that they had made me look like a parrot that had mated with Elton John! But I’m quite happy.”
Norton’s show also features Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr, Hugh Laurie, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, and singer songwriter Sara Bareilles.
The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One on Friday night at 10.35pm.