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Michelle Dockery was back on the red carpet on Monday night, showing off her baby bump at the glittering New York premiere of the final Downton Abbey movie.
Days after making her surprise pregnancy announcement at the London premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the actress, 43, joined her co-stars at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Michelle, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, looked gorgeous in a sparkling black gown, with the body-hugging fit showing off her growing bump.
Michelle married producer Jasper Waller-Bridge, 37, in 2023 in a romantic ceremony attended by her Downton Abbey co-stars.
The star was left heartbroken in 2015 when her fiance, Irish publicist John Dineen, died following a 15-month battle against a rare form of cancer aged 34.
The Mail on Sunday first revealed that Michelle had found love for the first time following his passing after they met through his star sister Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2019. In January 2022 they announced they were to marry in a notice in The Times newspaper.
While Michelle’s husband joined her for the London premiere, in NYC the actress had some fun with her co-stars, sharing a warm embrace with her onscreen mum Elizabeth McGovern on the red carpet.
Elizabeth, who stars as Cora, Countess of Grantham in the franchise, stood out in a bold neon pink and orange sequin dress.
The 64-year-old actress was full of confidence as she beamed and posed in the dramatic dress.
Also in attendance on Monday night was Laura Carmichael, who plays Lady Edith. The actress looked stunning in a chic grey dress which showed off her svelte figure.
Joanne Froggatt, who stars as Anna Bates, stole the spotlight in her racy strapless black dress, pairing the slinky number with wet-look hair in a grand departure from her onscreen look.
Family patriarch Lord Grantham, aka Hugh Bonneville, as well as Allen Leech (Tom Branson), Paul Giamatti (Harold Levinson) and series creator Julian Fellowes, also posed on the star-studded red carpet.
Last week Hugh, 61, attended the London premiere with his new girlfriend Heidi Kadlecova as they made a rare appearance in public together.
The stars were gathered to celebrate the finale of the beloved Downton Abbey, after an incredible 15 years of the TV series and a trilogy of movies.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which releases September 12, is set in 1930, some 18 years after the first episode.
It follows the Crawley family in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash and Lady Mary’s scandalous divorce.
It puts into question her eligibility to inherit the Downton Abbey estate from her father Lord Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville, who faces a dilemma on whether she is fit to run the place amid the public scrutiny.
Meanwhile, tribute is paid in the film to the late Dame Maggie Smith’s character the Dowager Countess of Grantham. Dame Maggie died last September, and this will be the first Downton series or motion picture she has not acted in.
Elsewhere, the family faces financial trouble as the household ‘grapples with the threat of social disgrace’.
As ever, the Crawleys must embrace change with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.
It comes as creator of Downton Abbey has claimed that British people have a ‘curious double standard’ of hating the rich but still wanting to be rich themselves.
Julian Fellowes criticised attitudes towards money, wealth and success in the UK in comparison to the United States.
He said in an interview with Radio Times that he thinks it is ‘ungenerous’ not to admire people who have done well for themselves.
The Tory peer explained: ‘Britain has this curious double standard of hating the rich and hating anyone who has been very successful, and yet wanting it. I don’t get it. It seems to me ungenerous not to admire people who have done very well.’
He added: ‘Even when I was a struggling actor – which I can tell you is not the easiest of existences – if I met someone who’d had success and become a movie star, I’d think, “Good luck to them”.’
