Thompson's heartbreak propelled her performance in 'Love Actually'

London: Actor Emma Thompson has said that her own experience of heartbreak and infidelity on the part of her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh inspired her performance in the crying scene of "Love Actually". Thompson and Branagh got married in 1989 after meeting on the set of BBC drama "Fortunes of War" two years earlier. However, the two separated after Branagh began an affair with Helena Bonham Carter.

"Love Actually", the 2003 ensemble comedy from Richard Curtis, featured one of the most memorable scenes of all-time where Thompson's character Karen finds out that her husband (played by Alan Rickman) has bought a jewellery for Christmas for another woman. Karen leaves the living room, only to go to the bedroom and cry her heart out.

"That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it's something everyone's been through", Thompson said at a fundraiser in North West London, according to The Telegraph. "I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn't meant for me. Well it wasn't exactly that, but we've all been through it," she added. In 2013, Thompson, who is now married to Greg Wise and has two children with him, had said that she had made peace with Carter, whom she described as a "wonderful person".