Renée Zellweger and Ant Anstead’s wedding plans remain deliberately unwritten. Although the television presenter frequently calls his partner “the missus,” he says the couple are happy after five years together and feel no need to make their relationship official with a ceremony.
“I still believe in marriage, but right now we’re really happy,” Anstead told The Telegraph in an interview published July 24. “We don’t need the pressure of a label.”
For two people living partly in the public eye, that lack of pressure appears to be the point. Their relationship has remained unusually private, with the couple building a shared life away from red carpets and constant public updates.
Why the couple is not rushing into marriage
Anstead, 47, has been married twice before. He was married to Louise Storey from 2005 to 2017 and to Christina Haack from 2018 to 2021. He shares daughter Amelie, 22, and son Archie, 19, with Storey, as well as 6-year-old son Hudson with Haack.
Zellweger, 57, and Anstead divide their time between Orange County, California, and the English countryside in Hertfordshire. In England, Anstead has been building a house for his parents and restoring old cars, a routine that offers the couple something quieter than the usual celebrity circuit.
He described the two-time Oscar winner as “a very real person,” adding, “She’s absolutely brilliant, the most grounded, humble person.”
Their domestic life also involves less glamorous forms of teamwork. “If there’s a car job to be done at home, I say, ‘We’re doing this together. Put your overalls on, let’s go.’” Romance, in this household, apparently comes with protective clothing.
How cars brought Zellweger and Anstead together
The couple first met in 2021 when Zellweger appeared on Anstead’s series Celebrity IOU: Joyride. Her confidence around cars quickly caught his attention.
“Renée is a hands-on car girl,” he said. “She used a grinder to cut metal, she was welding, she was on the spanners.”
Anstead, known for Wheeler Dealers, also remembered Zellweger stepping in when a car needed to be moved during filming. Manual transmissions are less common among American drivers, but she did not hesitate.
“Ren jumps in, goes, ‘I’ll do it!’, slams it into first, and off she goes,” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘Wow. This lady really knows her cars.’”
That moment gave him an immediate view of the practical, self-starting side of Zellweger that continues to shape their relationship. Rather than bonding through a polished Hollywood event, they connected while cutting metal and moving vehicles. It was not especially glamorous, which may be part of why it felt genuine.
A birthday gift showed how closely she listens
Anstead also shared a story that revealed Zellweger’s quieter approach to affection. While working on his parents’ property, he found a set of reclaimed gates he wanted to install. Zellweger noticed them while looking over his shoulder, without telling him.
When Anstead returned the next day to buy the gates, they had already been sold. He later discovered them waiting in the barn with a birthday balloon attached.
“She’d secretly contacted my dad and arranged for him to collect them,” he said, adding that the gift was far more meaningful than something ordinary.
The gesture helps explain why the couple seems comfortable without a formal label. Their relationship, at least as Anstead describes it, is built around shared work, careful attention and a private life spanning California and England. A wedding may still be possible someday, since he says he continues to believe in marriage. For now, however, neither appears interested in turning a happy arrangement into a deadline.
