Names and faces

FILE - In this file photo dated Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, British actor Colin Firth and his wife Livia, pose for photographers upon arrival at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards in Milan, Italy. A statement from their publicists says Colin and Italian eco-campaigner and film producer Livia Firth have separated after 22-years of marriage. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, FILE)
FILE - In this file photo dated Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, British actor Colin Firth and his wife Livia, pose for photographers upon arrival at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards in Milan, Italy. A statement from their publicists says Colin and Italian eco-campaigner and film producer Livia Firth have separated after 22-years of marriage. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, FILE)

• Oscar-winning British actor Colin Firth has split from his Italian film producer wife Livia Giuggioli after 22 years of marriage. Their publicists said in a statement that the couple "maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their children." The pair, who lived together in London and Rome, have two sons, Luca and Matteo, who were both born in Rome. A joint statement from their publicists confirmed the news Friday and said they would not comment further. Firth, who won the best actor Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2011 for his portrayal of stuttering British monarch King George VI in The King's Speech, also has a son with former partner Meg Tilly. Giuggioli is an environmental activist and co-founder and creative director of Eco-Age, a sustainable consultancy firm.

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AP

Colin Firth

• Mexico's most famous living author, Elena Poniatowska, is standing by her claim that she was sexually abused by an older colleague in 1954. Poniatowska, 87, reacted last week after relatives of deceased novelist Juan Jose Arreola lashed out publicly at her. Poniatowska has said that Arreola was married and in his 40s when he had sex with her and fathered her first child out of wedlock when she was in her early 20s. In her recent novel The Polish Lover, Poniatowska described the encounter as "the threat, the attack," and wrote she didn't fully know what was happening to her. "I am alone. I don't know what love is. What has happened to me. The cot, the threat, the attack have nothing to do with what I have read in books," according to the novel, which does not identify Arreola by name. However, in a later interview with the newspaper Excelsior, Poniatowska said the man was Arreola. Relatives of Arreola, who died in 2001, issued a letter criticizing Poniatowska. They published excerpts of apparently affectionate correspondence between the two, suggesting the encounter was a consensual "sentimental relationship." The family wrote that "the truth of those years has been transformed today into an unfair narrative of falsehoods." Poniatowska shot back, writing, "It was a relationship between a married adult who knew what he was doing, with a young woman who was inexperienced and unprepared in all senses." Poniatowska is best known for novels and non-fiction works about the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre and the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

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AP

Elena Poniatowska

A Section on 12/16/2019

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