Greg Wise has revealed that therapy was instrumental in saving his marriage to Emma Thompson after a challenging IVF journey left their relationship feeling “dislocated.” The couple underwent the grueling process to start their family, eventually welcoming their daughter Gaia, who is now 26.
Wise shared on Elizabeth Day's "How To Fail" podcast that he and Thompson had been together for about four years when they decided to start a family, only to discover they couldn't conceive naturally. They pursued IVF in New York, and Thompson became pregnant around her 40th birthday.
He described the IVF process as “brutal” and said it brought significant “baggage,” making them feel like failures for being unable to conceive naturally. This feeling was compounded by having only one child, as they had envisioned a larger family, having both come from families with two siblings.
"It's the most authentic feeling of failure ever because this is why we're here. We are here to procreate, and you're not a man if you can't, and you're not a woman if you can't," Wise explained.
He added that it took a long time for him and Thompson to recover from the emotional strain. “It took us a very long time to dig ourselves out of that hole. We didn't get help with it,” he said. “The pull of that, the exquisite love we felt for her [Gaia] and then the jarring pain that we wouldn't be able to provide her with a sibling and for us to have another child. It took a long time to dig ourselves out of that hole.”
Therapy, Wise stated, was crucial in helping them navigate these difficulties. “Therapy saved my life. It saved our marriage, without a doubt. Without a doubt. I would not be sitting here without therapy,” he asserted.
In 2003, Wise and Thompson adopted their son Tindyebwa Agaba Wise, a Rwandan orphan who was 16 at the time. The couple met in 1995 on the set of "Sense and Sensibility" and married in 2003.
Their daughter Gaia has also pursued a career in acting. In 2021, she spoke about her own three-year battle with anorexia, crediting her parents and therapy for saving her life after an intervention in 2017.