Emma Thompson says husband initially dated Kate Winslet

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Emma Thompson says her husband, actor Greg Wise, dated Kate Winslet shortly before they got together.

The 60-year-old actress recalled on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show how Wise, 53, initially thought Winslet, their Sense and Sensibility co-star, was his future wife.

Thompson and Winslet played sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in a 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, which co-starred Wise as John Willoughby. Thompson was married to actor and director Kenneth Branagh at the time of filming.

"Before [Greg] did the job, he went to see a friend of his who was a bit witchy and said he would meet his future partner on the film," Thompson said. "He assumed it wasn't me because I was married and quite a lot older than him so he thought it might be Kate."

Thompson said Wise took Winslet to Glastonbury music festival, but the pair were both uninspired by the date.

"She was so bored, and he thought, 'This isn't going to work. Who can it be?'" Thompson said of Wise. "Then things happened that probably shouldn't have happened, and it's been 25 years in May."

Thompson and Branagh split in September 1995 amid reports Branagh was having an affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter. Thompson and Wise started dating in 1995 and married in 2003. The couple have two children, daughter Gaia and son Tindyebwa.

Wise said in an interview with the Daily Express in 2014 that Winslet encouraged him to date Thompson.

"She pointed out that we were right for each other and told me that Emma's marriage was over," he said.

On Graham Norton, Thompson also shared how she was once mistaken for a 50 year old man. Thompson regularly bathes in a pond near her sheep pasture and said police once responded to a report that a naked "52-year-old man" was seen intruding on Thompson's property.