The British Wheeler Dealer who ended up dating Hollywood royalty
After making four Bridget Jones films, Renée Zellweger has admitted that she became an Anglophile. The Oscar-winning actress, 56, has spoken about her love of English breakfast tea, the London Underground and mushy peas. She even has a British boyfriend – a former British bobby turned footballer-turned-car mechanic, no less. Meet Ant Anstead – a quintessentially British bloke from Hertfordshire who's now dating Hollywood royalty.
Anstead has been in a relationship with Zellweger since 2021 and is best known for presenting the TV show Wheeler Dealers. But after rumours of an engagement in January, there's now speculation that they're no longer living together amid his alleged money troubles. So who is this self-described 'British Boy who builds'? And how did he come to date one of the world's most famous women?
Anthony Anstead was born in Cambridge in 1978 but grew up in Hertfordshire. As a car-mad teen, he was already building and selling kit cars when he was still at school and used the profits to buy himself an MG.
At 18, he became a police officer with the Hertfordshire Constabulary and guarded the notorious 'Railway Murderer', John Duffy, in a police safehouse. At 22, he was made one of the youngest Tactical Firearms Team officers in the country, receiving two commendations for acts of bravery.
But, in 2005, he resigned from the police force to pursue a career as a mechanic, building and restoring cars for private clients. In his free time he was a semi-professional footballer, playing over 700 games over 17 years at Ryman League (now known as Isthmian League) level, as both a goalkeeper and a striker.
He started his own TV company in 2014 and hosted a number of motoring shows for Channel 4 and the BBC, and appeared on stage at some of the UK's biggest car shows. He met Mike Brewer, who would become his Wheeler Dealers co-host, when they were both presenting classic car shows at the National Exhibition Centre (which hosts the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show among others).
'Ant's an incredible presenter and car builder, he really knows his stuff,' says Brewer, who bought the used cars for the show for Anstead to fix up. 'When we moved Wheeler Dealers to the US in 2017, [former show mechanic] Edd China wanted to go back to the UK so I pushed for Ant to join the show. I knew he'd be amazing.'
Before he moved to California, Anstead and his first wife – Louise Herbert – divorced. The couple had been dating since he was 19 and they have two children together, Amelie, 21, and Archie, 18. 'We spent 22 years together from teenagers to adults, and to this day remain very close friends and we stay in regular contact. Almost daily,' said Anstead. 'We have two amazing kids together who we are incredibly proud of and we will forever be family. I wish them a lifetime full of happiness.'
In October 2017, Anstead began dating Christina Haack, an American TV presenter who specialises in property shows. They tied the knot a year later in a secret 'winter wonderland' wedding at their home in Newport Beach and their son, Hudson, was born in September 2019. But less than a year later, Haack announced that they had split.
In 2021, Anstead's life took another twist when Zellweger was a guest on his US show Celebrity IOU Joyride. The premise of the series was for celebrities to fix up old cars and give them to important people in their lives, and the Bridget Jones' Diary star refurbished a 1970s Bronco and presented it to the twin brothers, Jerome and Jerald, who cared for her late publicist, Nanci Ryder, after she was diagnosed with ALS in 2014.
'I'm really grateful to the show because these amazing things happen in your world and sometimes when things collide, they collide at the most obscure times when you least expect them,' Anstead has said of meeting Zellweger.
The new couple were seen spending the Fourth of July weekend together at Anstead's beach home in Laguna Beach, and in September, Anstead went 'Instagram official' with the movie star, sharing a black-and-white selfie of them looking loved-up.
Although they largely kept out of the spotlight, they attended a few events together in the US. 'Renée and my relationship is something that's really private,' said Anstead. 'It's something I'm not really willing to talk too much about. It's really early in our relationship and I don't want to put any pressure on that.'
But in November 2021, Anstead shared an Instagram photo of Zellweger holding his son Hudson at a New Orleans Saints football game. He has also shared photos of him and Zellweger kissing and sharing anniversaries together.
Zellweger, who filed for an annulment from her country singer husband, Kenny Chesney, in September 2005 after four months of marriage, has been a little more cryptic. This year, she confirmed that she lives near San Diego 'because that's where my fellow lives, and his little boy'.
However, there was no being coy in January 2025, when the couple posed for photos with Anstead's children, Amelie and Archie, at the London premiere of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
He posted a picture from the red carpet with the caption: 'Midweek movie night with the kiddos.... The Movie was absolutely utterly brilliant and the lead actress was mesmerising and smoking HOT (I have a mega crush on her!) I've let the missus know she's my hall pass..... X.'
There was even speculation that the pair were engaged, after Zellweger, who is worth a reported £67 million, appeared at the premiere with plasters on her ring finger, possibly to cover up a ring.
But the jury's out on whether he's a dependable Mark Darcy type or a cad like Daniel Cleaver. In May there were reports that Zellweger and Anstead had split up, after he was seen spending time at the cliff-top mansion of a divorced Laguna Beach spin instructor named Julia French.
'Sadly, the recent reports in the press are disrespectful and misleading,' Anstead's publicist says. '[Anstead] stayed just a handful of days in Julia French's separate, and detached, guest house. They have been long-time friends with similar aged children within a circle of local Laguna Beach friends.'
Anstead might also be having money troubles, as his supercar company Radford Motors filed for Chapter Seven bankruptcy in a Delaware court in May. In recent months, he has faced a series of lawsuits from clients worth over £2 million. Anstead has said he remains 'fully committed' to the company despite its current 'challenges'.
According to Anstead's publicist, he has been 'spending the majority of his time working in the UK', while Zellweger has been filming the TV show Only Murders in the Building in New York City.
Mike Brewer says he's not surprised that his friend and co-host has ended up dating a Hollywood A-lister: 'He's a good looking guy and he's very charming,' he says. 'It was inevitable he'd hook up with somebody great, as people just gravitate towards him. Whatever the 'X factor' is, he's got it. Renée and Ant have a wonderful relationship. My wife and I meet up with them and hang out with them all the time.'
According to Anstead's representative: 'Renée and Ant remain in a cherished relationship that they ask to keep private.' Maybe the Bridget Jones star will get her happily ever after, after all.
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