She felt having a family was ‘like a betrayal’

Nicola Walker – surely an acting Dame before too long? – will thankfully be back on the box again as Annika series 2 screens on BBC One. But how much do you know about the celebrated actress and her marriage to husband Barnaby Kay?

Fans of The Split, starring Nicola as divorce lawyer Hannah Stern, may well have pondered the real life and love life of the actress behind the character. But Nicola, 55, has not opened up extensively in public about her personal situation and tends to keep her private life out of the spotlight.

However, here’s what Nicola Walker has said about her marriage and husband previously.

Nicola Walker married her husband after 20 years together (Credit: BBC iPlayer)

Who is Nicola Walker married to? Is her husband famous?

Nicola’s husband Barnaby may not be as well-known to telly viewers as his spouse. But he is also a performer – and comes from a family of actors.

His father Richard Kay was also an actor, while his grandfather was entertainer Arthur Kay.

Barnaby has built an acting career that has seen him thrive at venues in the West End and other prestigious London theatres.

But he has also had TV roles in Wallander, Doctor Who, New Tricks, Spooks and Prime Suspect. He has also appeared in films such as Shakespeare in Love and Croupier.

Barnaby Kay appearing in New Tricks opposite Tamzin Outhwaite (Credit: BBC iPlayer)

How did Nicola Walker and her husband meet?

According to reports, the couple met when they were treading the boards together.

Nicola and Barnaby are said to have met in the mid 1990s while touring with productions of The Man of Mode and The Libertine.

However, it would be about 20 years later – in 2006 – until they married. And she has indicated they got hitched to provide a layer of security for their son Harry.

Nicola Walker as Annika, another hit role for the much-loved actress (Credit: BBC iPlayer)

‘Not the most romantic reason to get married’

That’s because, Nicola has previously explained, both she and Barnaby were impacted by the death of a parent.

She previously told the Radio Times: “Me and my husband, because we both lost a parent young, we thought, after we had a child, we ought to get married, in case one of us dies, so that the legalities are clear.

“Which is not the most romantic reason to get married but is probably the only thing that would have got me to sign a piece of paper. I’m not a great advocate of marriage in real life.”

‘I put off having a child and the marriage thing’ (Credit: BBC iPlayer)

Husband ‘hasn’t forgiven her’

Additionally, in December 2024, Nicola indicated in an interview with The Times, her previous comments about getting married “came out very strangely”. She may have been referring to remarks she made in 2022 comparing the ceremony of marriage to going to work.

She said: “I don’t think any of my family, or Barney, have forgiven me. It didn’t paint us in a very good light, or our marriage, but we really did get married because we’d had a child together.”

Nicola also touched on the loss of her mum when she was just 54 after years of suffering with multiple sclerosis and the Unforgotten star was in her late twenties.

She hinted life milestones may have been ‘put off’ because of her loss.

Nicola reflected: “It took me a long time to recover from her not being there. And I put things off because she wasn’t there. This is getting a bit bleak. I don’t mean to be morbid, but I put off having a child and the marriage thing because I’d just think, I’d like my mum to be here. I’m doing things and I feel she would have been here and been such a big part of it. So I think I did. I think I put things off. I felt like I was betraying her on some level by doing things that she couldn’t be a part of.”