British actor Rowan Atkinson is perhaps most well-known as Mr. Bean — but to his kids, he's simply Dad.
The comedian is a father to two children, Ben and Lily, from his first marriage to makeup artist Sunetra Sastry and to one child, Isla, from his current relationship with comedian and actress Louise Ford.
Atkinson rarely speaks about his family in interviews, preferring to keep the focus on his career. His children also appear to be staying out of the spotlight for the most part, with minimal social media presences.
That said, Lily is following in her dad’s footsteps as an artist. She’s both a musician and a visual artist, who occasionally shares her work on Instagram and YouTube. Her elder brother, Ben, is serving in the British Army in a specialized unit. Meanwhile, their younger sister, Isla, is living in South Oxfordshire, England.
Here’s everything to know about Rowan Atkinson’s children: Ben, Lily and Isla.
Atkinson and Sastry welcomed their first child together, a son named Ben, on Sept. 9, 1993.
Ben is a graduate of Exeter University and currently serves in the British Army. In 2016, he announced on Facebook that he had received an acceptance letter from Sandhurst, the military academy where Prince William and Prince Harry earned their military badges.
“Dunno what this letter is but apparently The Royal Military Academy want me to come and attend them. Sounds like fun,” he wrote on the social media platform, per The Telegraph.
Ben also was one of the recruits to stand with Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May when they visited Sandhurst in 2018 for the 35th UK-France summit, according to the Daily Mail.
In 2019, he joined the Gurkhas soldiers after spending months in Nepal. He went through a 10-week course to learn the local culture.
A humorous update in The Gurkha Brigade Association newsletter shared, per The Sunday Observer, “Lt Atkinson grasped the language remarkably quickly. This may be attributed either to his language experience, having studied both Arabic and Spanish previously, or to his urgent requirement to learn the local Nepalese ‘chat-up’ lines.”
The newsletter also suggested he quickly p -
icked up Nepalese dance moves. “Learning some Nepalese dance moves was also a personal priority and Lt Atkinson was quick to establish an impressive ‘uthyo basyo’ (an up-down rapid squatting dance-move),” it reads.
Currently, it appears that Ben is keeping a fairly low profile as he does not have public social media profiles.
Atkinson and Sastry celebrated the arrival of their second child together, daughter Lily, on July 11, 1995.
She’s following in her father’s footsteps as a performer. She’s a singer-songwriter and a cabaret performer who has done sell-out performances at the Pheasantry in London and the St. James Studio.
In a 2016 interview with My Theatre Mates, she shared a little bit about her creative process.
“I had always been a writer, but I was about 14/15 when I really started writing music,” she said. “I just loved writing stories and poems, coming up with melodies; I was always challenging myself. Of course, already being a singer and performer, I worked out pretty quickly what I wanted to do."
When asked how she would describe her musical style, she said it is “R&B, soul, pop, with a bit of funk.”
In 2017, the Daily Mail reported that Lily had started styling herself as Lily Sastry, using her mother’s maiden name instead of Atkinson. Her Instagram profile bears the name Lily Sastry, though she’s also hashtagged some images with “#lilyatkinson.”
In recent years, Lily has continued to produce and record music, according to her social media profiles. She’s part of an electronic music duo called ilivati, according to her Instagram. She’s also made a name for herself as a visual artist, with several acrylic-on-canvas paintings being showcased on her Instagram profile.
Atkinson and his girlfriend, Louise Ford, welcomed their daughter, Isla, in December 2017.
The couple began dating in 2014, following Atkinson's split from Sastry. Atkinson and Ford met while performing in the comic play Quartermaine's Terms the year prior.
Very little is known about Isla, as neither of her parents speak about her in interviews.
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