Thandiwe Newton signs with new management team

Thandiwe Newton has signed with a new management team after a tumultuous few months in her personal and professional life. 

The actress, 49, recently fired her old UK agent of three decades and her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help after a series of big changes in her life. 

Thandiwe has reportedly been urged to seek mental health support following the break-up of her marriage to Ol Parker – and was allegedly involved in a bust-up with Magic Mike co-star Channing Tatum over Will Smith ‘s Oscars slap – which she has denied. 

The new PR agency told MailOnline: ‘I can confirm I’ll be working with Thandiwe, we are both very much looking forward to working on future projects together’. 

Meanwhile her US agent Gaby is considered one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, representing stars including Matthew McConaughey and Minnie Driver over her thirty year career at powerhouse agency William Morris.

Thandiwe reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks.

It comes after earlier this month Thandiwe was branded ‘crazy’ by the step-father of her toyboy lover Lonr, 25.

Drama: The actress, 49, recently fired her old UK agent of three decades and her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help (pictured in bizarre recent Instagram post) 

The star is reportedly living with musician Lonr following her recent split from husband of 16 years Ol.

Now the step-father of Lonr – real name Elijah Dias – has spoken out on the surprise romance, insisting the rapper won’t settle down with Thandiwe. 

Speaking to The Sun from his New York home, Jimmy Varner, 58, said his family found out about their romance through pictures in the media.

Jimmy is the ex-husband of Elijah’s mum Mikelyn Roderick, 63. He told The Sun that the whole family found out about the romance through media reports, advising the couple:

Tough: Thandiwe has reportedly been urged to seek mental health support following the break-up of her marriage to Ol Parker (pictured with Ol in 2019)

‘Lord have mercy on her – and him. She looks crazy as hell to me. All the pretty ones are crazy like that.

‘But when he’s ready to settle down and be having kids, he ain’t going to settle for her.

Elijah said that he is not concerned by the 24 year age gap between the pair, explaining: ‘Look, he knows what to do with an older woman, I’m not worried about the age gap. He’s mature, he can handle himself… she had better be ready for him.’

Last week, it was reported the Line Of Duty star is ‘living with 25-year-old musician Lonr’, following the pair’s recent public display of affection in Malibu, and wants ‘everyone to know’ about the romance.

Report: She was also allegedly involved in a bust-up with her Magic Mike co-star Channing Tatum over Will Smith ‘s Oscars slap – which she has denied (Channing pictured centre in Magic Mike, 2012)

The actress is said to be acting like a ‘love-struck teenager’ while pals close to the star have claimed Ol was ‘blindsided’ by her new romance.

A source told The Sun: ‘Thandiwe has been staying with Elijah in LA and is acting like a smitten teenager. Her wedding ring is off and it seems she has fallen for him.  

‘Thandiwe seems like she can’t get enough of Elijah. When he isn’t working, he is with Thandiwe. They are very much a couple and Elijah is acting like the perfect boyfriend.

‘She isn’t hiding this romance. She wants everyone to know about it.’

Family: Her and Ol share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019)

Thandiwe has been liking and commenting on the rapper’s social media posts since at least January 2020. However, there is no suggestion they had a relationship back then.   

The young musician has insisted Thandiwe’s number one priority is the welfare of her three children.

Lonr, who at 25 is just four years older than the actress’ eldest daughter, has broken his silence on the pair’s relationship, insisting Thandiwe is still focused on the upbringing of her children with the filmmaker – Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.  

He told Page Six: ‘From the relatively short time I’ve been fortunate to spend with her, I know Thandiwe and Oliver care deeply about the welfare of their children. That’s all I care about right now.’ 

Difficult: It comes after earlier this month Thandiwe was branded ‘crazy’ by the step-father of her toyboy lover Lonr, 25 (pictured kissing)  

Thandiwe and the rapper’s professional paths crossed in 2021 when Lonr collaborated with Amber Mark on the track Save My Love.   

The song subsequently appeared in the trailer and on the soundtrack for the film Reminiscence, in which the actress starred alongside Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. 

Thandiwe has reportedly been urged to seek mental health support following the break-up of her marriage – and the alleged bust-up with Magic Mike co-star Channing over Will Smith ‘s Oscars slap – which she has denied.  

Thandiwe went on to praise Channing in a post shared recently, hailing him as the ‘loveliest’ amid their reported feud. 

Recast: Thandiwe’s role in the film will now be played by Salma Hayek (pictured in February) 

The actress shared a slew of bizarre Instagram posts recently after pictures emerged of the star visiting a cannabis store in Malibu.

The actress paid a visit to marijuana dispensary High Tide last month in the Californian city – where the drug is legal for recreational and medicinal purposes.

It has been a turbulent period for the Hollywood film star who has been recently replaced in Magic Mike 3 by Salma Hayek following reports of a ‘bust-up’ with leading man Channing. 

It has also been said that Thandiwe has been suffering with emotional and family problems after separating from her husband Ol, 52.

Over the weekend, the star took to social media to share snaps larking around with a pear before professing her love for children’s TV character Worzel Gummidge. 

Posing makeup-free while holding onto a pear, she wrote: ‘Pears, man. *Swoon* You feel me? Slow Food. Seasonal Picking. Harmony.’ 

She added, ‘Ubuntu’, a way of life made famous by Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu that is based on the concept that you should live harmoniously alongside each other, and is rooted in the lessons learned by the post-apartheid South Africa community.

The mother-of-three went on to share a picture of fictional scarecrow Worzel Gummidge who she quipped should become Prime Minister.

From a Cornwall upbringing to  a Hollywood star: Thandiwe’s 30-year career and 24-year marriage 

Born in London, Newton grew up in Penzance, Cornwall, where her parents – her dad is white British, her mother black, from Zimbabwe – sent her to a Catholic school. 

She said of her school years: ‘I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns’.

She went on to study at Cambridge University, where she read anthropology.

Her screen career began as a teenager with the 1991 film Flirting marking her debut. 

At just 22 she appeared in major movie Interview With A Vampire, opposite To Cruise and Brad Pitt.  She later reunited with Cruise in the 2000 movie Mission Impossible 2. 

Newton’s early acting years were marked with sexual abuse. When she was 16 she was groomed by director John Duigan, who was 39 years old at the time. 

The violations by Duigan lasted five years, two of those years were termed a ‘relationship’ after he sought Newton’s parents’ blessing for her to be his girlfriend when she was 18. 

Two years after meeting Duigan, at the age of 18, another director told the actress to intimately touch herself during an audition. Newton obliged, as there was also a female casting director present.

But years later, she discovered the unnamed man had kept her tape and was playing it at poker games for other Hollywood elite.

Following the violating discovery, Thandiwe began to fight the abuse and call it out – an act that cost the actress many jobs.  

Alongside her movie career she’s had long-running roles in the likes of ER and her lead part in Westworld.  

 She met husband Ol in 1997 and said it was love at first sight. 

At the time Ol was a screenwriter and had penned In Your Dreams, which featured the actress.

‘He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,’ she told InStyle Magazine.

‘When I met Ol, I was dating a really sweet, lovely man and I had to leave him straight away, even though I wasn’t even going out with Ol’.

‘But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else.’

She went on to marry Ol in 1998. The couple share three children: Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.

The actress was previously credited as Thandie Newton before she reverted to the original spelling of her name three decades after it was misspelled in her first film.

She revealed that Thandie was a careless misspelling in the credits of her first movie – the 1991 Australian film Flirting, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor – and it has stuck ever since. 

‘That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine,’ she told British Vogue in April 2021.