James Norton and Imogen Poots 'split' after six years together

James Norton has reportedly split from his fiancée Imogen Poots after six years.

The Happy Valley star, 38, and the 28 Weeks Later actor met in 2017 when they both appeared in an adaptation of War and Peace and then went on to star in a run of Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse. Norton confirmed they were engaged in February 2022. 

However, they have not been seen together for months, with Poots, 34, last seen supporting her fiancé at the opening night of A Little Life, the harrowing adaptation of the Hanya Yanagihara novel in which Norton starred, in March 2023.

Poots was also noticeably absent from all of the premieres of Bob Marley film One Love held in Jamaica, LA and London. Norton plays record producer Chris Blackwell in the movie, also starring Lashana Lynch and Kingsley Ben-Adir.

They have also unfollowed one another on social media. 

Sources told The Mail the pair split at the end of last year after growing apart due to busy work schedules. 

Representatives for Norton and Poots have been contacted by the Standard.

When the couple met, they endured a long-distance relationship between London and New York. They had been living together in east London before their split. 

Poots previously opened up about navigating their relationship when they worked far apart. "It's all I've ever known, I've never known something to fall apart because of distance," she told the Standard. "Sharing a bathroom, however, is quite another matter!"

Poots has recently been filming in New Mexico making drama Outer Range with James Brolin and is now making Hedda, a new adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in the UK.

Promoting the Happy Valley finale last year, Norton said about juggling a relationship and work: “It comes as a cost because you don't see each other a lot, but we are willing to pay that for the benefit of having someone in your life close to you who gets it, who is forgiving, who will give up their Sunday to do an annoying self-tape (audition).”