Keira Knightley’s husband of 13 years has been pictured without his wedding ring, weeks after it was revealed the actress has dropped her married name from official documents.
James Righton, former vocalist of pop band Klaxons, was spotted without the gold band that has adorned his ring finger since the couple’s 2013 South of France wedding.
Wearing a colourful plaid jacket and a baseball cap emblazoned the words ‘I don’t work here’, a grim-faced James, 42, cycled through north London before stopping for an animated conversation with a friend.
The couple, who share two daughters Edie, ten, and Delilah, six, were last pictured together during London Fashion Week in February 2026.
It was in February that Keira, 41, sparked speculation about the state of their marriage when it was revealed that she had dropped the surname of her husband from official documents.
The Hollywood star had named herself as Keira Christina Righton. However, her name has since been changed to Keira Christine Knightley at Companies House, using ‘new details’ provided by the actress.
The changes relate to her performing arts company KCK Boo Ltd, which had more than £11million of assets at the time of its latest accounts.
Keira admitted changing her surname for official purposes in 2021, eight years after her wedding, had required much soul-searching.
In 2014 she talked about adopting her husband’s name, saying: ‘I went to do the passport thing ‘cos I was thinking, “Shall I do it? It will be helpful”.
‘But you actually have to see it written down, and I found I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go there. Yet.’
In December the actress revealed that she had sold the beloved French vineyard where she married James, admitting it was ‘difficult’ to keep their passion project going.
The couple owned Les Cinq Puits – French for ‘the five wells’, a name taken from the five natural springs in the vineyard where the wine was made – near the slopes of Mont Ventoux in the Rhone Valley, where they became immersed in the traditions of small-scale winemaking.
The property had a very special place in her heart as it was where she and James married in 2013, two years after they first met at a mutual friend’s dinner party in London.
They held a low-key ceremony attended by family and close friends, including actress Sienna Miller, with the bride wearing a beautiful Chanel ivory dress and matching jacket on the day.
The couple tend to keep their private life underwraps, however Keira has shared the odd anecdote about the trials and tribulations of a long-term relationship over the years, quipping on the couple’s tenth wedding anniversary, that it was ‘a miracle to have made it this far’.
Meanwhile in more recent candid comments, Keira revealed in a December interview that she issued her husband an ultimatum over his ‘bizarre’ habits in their early days of dating.
Explaining how she had to ‘train him,’ the actress compared the musician to a ‘a child’ when it came to his diet.
Speaking on Waitrose podcast Dish with hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, she recalled enlisting the help of her friend to try and make James try new foods.
Keira said: ‘He just couldn’t cook, all he ate was cheese on toast. I was like, “This is not going to work”.
‘He wouldn’t even go out for dinner. He didn’t understand going to restaurants. He was bizarre.’
Keira explained how she made him try new foods with his eyes shut as she ‘trained’ him.
She continued: ‘My oldest friend is a proper old-school bon viveur, we basically trained him.
We took him out to restaurants and he wouldn’t try anything. He was like a child. He used to shut his eyes, and we’d be like, “Try it, try it!”‘
‘He’d be like “OK, it’s nice, it’s nice!”‘
Representatives for the couple have been contacted by Daily Mail for comment.
