James Acaster Joins Celebrity Traitors After Bitter Breakup Saga
Key Points
- Acaster learned, a year after their split, that Louise Ford had started dating Rowan Atkinson.
- He jokes he was "left for Mr Bean", and the character's imagery haunts his daily life.
- Filming starts next weekend in the Scottish Highlands, where he'll compete against other celebrities.
JAMES Acaster has signed up for BBC One’s Celebrity Traitors, bringing a personal twist to the show after a messy breakup that caught the public’s eye.
The stand-up comic revealed he only found out a year after splitting from actress Louise Ford that she had started dating Rowan Atkinson – famously known as Mr Bean.
“I got left for Mr Bean. I found out a year after we split up. I opened the newspaper and there was a story,” he said.
“No one else in the history of time has ever been left for Mr Bean,” he said.
James and Louise had been together for two years before she grew distant during her West End run with Rowan in Quartermaine’s Terms.
Rowan left his wife of 24 years and moved in with Louise, who gave birth to their daughter Isla in 2017.
James admitted the experience left him constantly reminded of Mr Bean’s presence, saying, “Until you get left for Mr Bean, you don’t realise how frequently he pops up. There’s a shop two streets from my house that sells masks of his face.
There’s nowhere where I’m going to go that he’s not there.”
Despite the awkwardness, James has kept the story under wraps for years, joking in his stand-up that it’s “the funniest that ever happened to anyone.”
Filming for Celebrity Traitors starts next weekend in the Scottish Highlands, where James will face off against other celebrities in the high-stakes contest.
With his sharp wit and personal history, James Acaster is sure to be one to watch on the new series.
