Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson says Donald Trump asked her out on the same day she divorced her first husband, Kenneth Branagh.
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While at the Locarno Film Festival over the weekend, the Harry Potter star recalled receiving a phone call from the future U.S. president while filming Primary Colors.
“He said, ‘Hello, this is Donald Trump,'” the actress said while talking about that phone call, per the Telegraph. “I thought it was a joke and asked, ‘How can I help you?’ Maybe he needed directions from someone.”
Continuing to speak about the situation, Thompson said, “Then he said, ‘I’d love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.”
The actress said she gently turned down Trump. “I said, ‘Well, that’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you.”
Hours later, Thompson thought about the timing of that phone call. “I realized my divorce decree had come through that day,” she explained. “I bet he’s got people looking for a nice divorcee to take out on his arm.”
She then joked, “And he found the number in my trailer. I mean, that’s stalking.”
Thompson further joked about the situation, noting she could have altered the political world had she just gone on the date. “I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell. I could have changed the course of American history.”
As Thompson was divorcing Branagh, Trump was going through his own split from his second wife, Marla Maples, whom he had married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They share daughter Tiffany.
Thompson married her second husband, Greg Wise, in 2003, while Trump married his third and current wife, Melania.
Another Actress Once Discussed Donald Trump Asking Her Out
This isn’t the first time an actress has revealed that Donald Trump showed personal interest in her. Months after the world leader won his first election, Salma Hayek recalled him offering to take her out on a date.
While appearing on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Hayek said Trump had asked her out, despite her not being single. While at an event, the millionaire put his coat over her shoulder after noticing she was cold.
“I turned around and my boyfriend – so charming, so nice – he said hello [to Trump],” Hayek recalled. “[Trump] said, ‘I’m sorry, your girlfriend, I saw she was cold.’ And then he kept talking to my boyfriend.”
The actress then said that Trump invited her and her boyfriend to visit his hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, if they were ever in town. The trio exchanged phone numbers.
Although he didn’t call her boyfriend, Trump eventually phoned Hayek. “He’s inviting me out, and I’m like, ‘What about my boyfriend? Am I crazy? Are you asking me out? You know I have a boyfriend,'” she said.
Trump continued the conversation by stating Hayek’s boyfriend was “not good enough” for her, nor was he important.
“You have to go out with me,” Trump allegedly told her.
Months after she rejected him, Hayek claimed Trump planted a tabloid story about her, which reported the duo didn’t date because she was “too short.”
“Later, he called and left me a message,” she said. “‘Can you believe this? Who would say this? I don’t want people to think this about you.” He thought that I would try to go out with him, so people wouldn’t think that’s why he wouldn’t go with me.”