Game of Thrones was a hugely important show for Kit Harington. It turned him from another actor looking for a gig into an international star, but it’s also where he met his wife and the mother of his children, Rose Leslie.
Rose Leslie played the wildling warrior Ygritte while Harington played the broody Night’s Watchman Jon Snow. So not only were their characters in love on the show, the actors for falling for each other offscreen. “We first met having a costume fitting,” Harington said to an audience at the Game of Thrones Official Fan Convention the other weekend. “I remember she offered me a ginger biscuit and I went, ‘Yes please!’ I remember coming back home and saying to my best friend like, ‘Oh God, I think I found the one.’”
According to Insider, this anecdote was followed by a collection “Awwww,” as it should be. “There is nothing better in life than falling in love with the person you are in love with on-screen,” Harington continued. “It’s just astonishing. Sorry to be smushy. But you fall in love and you never get that initial giddy feeling back, but you’ll have moments when you fall in love with each other again. The other day I reminded her of it — every time we think about it we grin.”
Kit Harington fell for Game of Thrones costar Rose Leslie after their first meeting
Harington and Leslie were extremely convincing as starcrossed lovers, and their offscreen affection could only have helped. Of course, acting played a big part in it too. “But yeah the Ygritte thing… I just saw Rose,” Harington said. “The funny thing about Rose is that she’s so good and so sweet and so lovely and then she lets her fierceness out in her characters. So you’re having a lovely chat with your girlfriend and then suddenly she’s biting your face off in a scene.”
You can go relive Jon and Ygritte’s journey by watching Game of Thrones on HBO Max. Both actors have kept busy since then, as well; Leslie recently starred in The Time Traveler’s Wife on HBO and Harington has appeared in movies like Eternals.
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