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Sophie Turner turns 30 next month, and for her birthday, she wants nothing more than “some peace”.
The British actress was 13 when she was cast in Game of Thrones, the juggernaut that would dominate global television for nearly a decade. But the scrutiny that followed her into adulthood intensified in September 2023, when her split from ex-husband Joe Jonas prompted wild and unfounded speculation on her fitness to parent their two children. The shame and guilt from that period, Turner has said in a new interview, still lingers.
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner split in September 2023 after four years of marriage. In the weeks that followed, Turner was plagued by accusations that she “likes to party” and Jonas “likes to stay home”, which she later disputed.Credit: Getty
“It’s a total fishbowl. And people take so much as fact these days,” Turner said in a new cover interview for Net-A-Porter’s digital magazine Porter.
“You feel like you’re gagged because silence is always the way to let something die out. But it means that you can’t stand up for yourself ever, so there’s a feeling of helplessness and shame.”
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Turner and Jonas first met in 2016, when the then-27-year-old Jonas Brothers frontman direct messaged Turner, then 20, on Instagram.
They eloped in Las Vegas in May 2019, with a traditional wedding held in Paris the following month. By July 2022, they had welcomed two daughters. In August 2023, Jonas gave Turner, who was dancing in the crowd, a shoutout during the opening show of the Jonas Brothers’ tour in New York City.
“If you’re going through a tough time, they reach out to you, they’ve got your back no matter what. That person is here with me tonight, Sophie,” Jonas said from Yankee Stadium’s stage before singing Hesitate, a song he previously called a “love letter” to Turner.
Less than a month later, Jonas had filed for divorce. In legal documents obtained by USA Today, Jonas claimed his marriage to Turner was “irretrievably broken”. One day after that, the former couple released a joint statement on Instagram, notifying their combined following of more than 26 million that they had “mutually” and “amicably” decided to end their marriage.
What followed was weeks of back and forth between unnamed sources in tabloids, mainly focused on the narrative initially reported by TMZ that Turner, who was filming Joan* in the United Kingdom, “likes to party” and Jonas “likes to stay at home”.
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Jonas’ doting dad narrative was furthered by paparazzi images of him enjoying breakfast with their two daughters, after Turner had spent the previous three years trying to keep her children out of the public eye.
The divorce was finalised in September 2024, and while the terms of their settlement remain confidential, it’s understood the couple co-parent their daughters between England, where Turner lives, and the United States, where Jonas lives.
Responding in May 2024 to what British Vogue called “mum-shaming of the most egregious kind”, Turner denied all claims and called the firestorm the “worst few days of [her] life”.
Turner rose to fame portraying Sansa Stark on HBO juggernaut Game of Thrones, a role she held from 2011, when she was 13, to 2019.Credit: HBO
“I don’t read the internet, I don’t look myself up, otherwise that would absolutely kill me,” Turner told Porter in the new interview published overnight.
She says she buries herself in the “stuff that actually matters” to cope. That includes her two children, though the impact from the world questioning her parenting skills hasn’t faded.
“The mum guilt is there forever,” Turner said. “I work all week and then, on the weekends, I’ll spend all day with my kids each day. But if I go out for lunch with a friend, I will run back home because my heart is sinking that I’ve left them.”
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Her children seeing her “working [her] arse off” is important, Turner said, noting that to be a good role model, she has to “have passion for [herself].” And she knows she can get through the stress.
As Turner told Porter: “That’s the good thing about having a relatively hard twenties: I learned that I can survive a lot.”
*Nine, the owner of this masthead, also owns Stan.
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