First it was Angelina and Brad. Then came Johnny and Amber. Now brace yourself for the Ioan and Alice show, in what has become — even by Hollywood standards — one of the showbiz world's most bitter and publicly slugged-out divorces.
The latest drama kicked off this week, when actress Alice Evans took to Twitter to claim to her 29,000 followers that her estranged husband Ioan Gruffudd had been cheating on her for three years with a much younger woman.
Evans implied that her ex had gaslighted her for years, betraying her and their two daughters (but did not offer any evidence to support her accusation).
The 'other woman' is Bianca Wallace, an Australian actress who is 21 years younger than Evans.
Late on Tuesday, Gruffudd, the Welsh actor best known for his roles in TV series including Liar and Hornblower, went 'Insta official' with his new girlfriend, posting a cosy picture of him and Bianca on a film set, holding coffee and looking blissfully happy.
Actress Alice Evans took to Twitter to claim to that her estranged husband Ioan Gruffudd (both pictured in January 2012) had cheated on her for three years with a much younger woman
Evans implied that her ex had gaslighted her for years, betraying her and their two daughters (but did not offer any evidence to support her accusation)
'Thank you for making me smile again,' he wrote, with two love heart emojis.
Wallace, the woman making him smile, is an Aussie actress who was an extra on his drama series Harrow, in Brisbane, for the past two years and romance has blossomed.
Definitely not smiling, though, is Alice.
Recollections vary on the ticklish question of when the Gruffudd-Wallace romantic connection began — they say after his marriage was over, but Alice claims they have been an item for three years. Worse still, she says, is that she counted Bianca as a friend.
'So it turns out my husband, after two years of telling me I'm a bad person and I'm not exciting and he no longer wants to have sex with me and he just wants to be on set abroad... has been in a relationship for three years behind my back,' she blasted online.
Alice demanded to know via a series of tweets and Instagram messages whether his acting friends and co-stars knew what was going on.
When former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite and Gruffudd's co-star Ella Newton sent him their congratulations on his new love, Alice replied to ask how long they had known about the relationship.
The latest drama in this excruciatingly public dumping began on Tuesday night when Evans posted a picture of herself looking forlorn, with smudged make-up (presumably from crying) and wrote: 'Tonight, after learning that a person I thought was a friend might not be. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, is my wig on straight?'
The 'other woman' is Bianca Wallace (pictured), an Australian actress who is 21 years younger than Evans
Alice then started to post messages on Bianca's Instagram page, demanding to know what she was doing in France. The messages were hastily deleted and Alice was blocked.
Alice then shared an Instagram photo that Bianca had uploaded weeks earlier, which showed a group seated in chairs that were lined up on the beach.
She wrote: 'I have no words. My husband sent this to Elsie, our eight-year-old last week and asked her if she thought he was a good photographer. I am lost. Totally lost and sad and confused...'
When asked, 'Who is Bianca?' Evans responded: 'Bianca Wallace seems to be the person he has been in a relationship with for three years whilst blaming our difficulties on me. I've just found this out tonight. I feel like killing myself. (I won't).'
She went on to tweet 'Why did he have to gaslight me? Why couldn't he just have told me he'd met someone?'
So who is the new woman in Ioan's life?
Bianca's move into acting is recent. She has just three screen credits, including —would you believe — a short film in which the main character is called Alice.
Her agency provides extras for TV shows in and around Brisbane. She has also been seen at The Terrace rooftop bar at the Emporium Hotel, which was favoured by the show's cast and crew.
Wallace, 29, was living in Brisbane when Gruffudd, 48, was making three series of the TV drama Harrow in the city (starting in 2018) — although they are insisting through friends, that romance only blossomed between them after he had returned from Australia and split from Alice. The split was announced publicly in January.
Gruffudd spent six to eight months at a time away from the marital home in Los Angeles, where Evans and their daughters live. Filming for the final Covid-disrupted series ended in August 2020.
On New Year's Eve last year — cited by Ioan as the date of his separation from Alice — Bianca wrote about how much she was looking forward to 2021: 'We have a very exciting year
