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As Cillian Murphy gears up for the 2024 Golden Globe Awards on January 7, many are wondering if he’ll bring his gorgeous wife, Yvonne McGuniess, as his date. “I have an amazing wife, and I couldn’t do this without her and her understanding,” the actor, who’s up for the award in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama category for his work in Oppenheimer, told GQ in 2019.
Yvonne is a creative artist who has been Cillian’s better half since 2004. Though Cillian married her in 2004, the two knew each other for nearly a decade before that. Since walking down the aisle, they welcomed two sons: Malachy Murphy in 2005 and Aran Murphy in 2007.
As Cillian enjoys the spotlight and his family life, get to know more about his wife, Yvonne, below.
Who Is Cillian Murphy’s Wife?
Yvonne McGuiness (b. Oct. 12, 1972) is a visual artist. She got her master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London, and her website says she makes installations that use” “film, performance, sculptural and textile elements, sound, and writing” (h/t Elle).
Cillian and Yvonne have kept their relationship out of the public eye, mainly to allow them a work-life balance. Maintaining that separation of their personal and professional lives has been “hard,” Murphy told The Guardian in 2006. “It is a struggle. I think it is for any dad whose work takes him away, which it generally does, and which consumes him, which my work does.”
“I make sure that I try not to go from job to job to job because that means you live in a bubble of set, hotel, set, hotel, plane, film festivals—which, to me, is not reality,” he added. “So I just check out from that for six months a year.”
When Did Cillian Murphy First Meet His Wife?
Cillian and Yvonne first met in 1996 when he was a law student at University College Cork (h/t Pop Sugar). During his spare time, Cillian played in a rock band, and Yvonne came to one of his gigs.
Around that time, his acting career was starting to take off. He starred in Disco Pigs, a play about two teens that went out on a night in Cork. The show was a success, and they went on an 18-month tour that took them throughout Europe, Australia, and North America.
“It was like being in a band again. Except that people actually came to the shows,” he told The Guardian in 2016. “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]. 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.”
Do Cillian Murphy And Yvonne McGuiness Have Any Kids?
Cillian and Yvonne have two boys: Malachy and Aran Murphy. The youngest boy, Aran, followed in his father’s footsteps by starring in a 2019 production of “Hamnet” as William Shakespeare’s son.
He was so chilled about it, you know? He would come off stage and ask what the score was in the Liverpool game. And, again, you’re slightly jealous of that!” Cillian told The Guardian in 2021. “There’s the danger that overanalyzing everything can erode the simplicity.”
“Most of what I do is highly unsuitable for [my kids]. They are suitably underwhelmed by my work. I’m trying to keep them in that state because it’s such a silly industry,” he told The Evening Standard in 2017.
