Source: Kevin Winter / Getty
While there are many women out there who would love to be Mrs. Idris Elba, that honor belongs to his wife, Sabrina, who officially goes by her husband’s last name now. The pair married this year after dating since 2017, and while she loves being the other half to one of People’s Sexiest Men, the beauty told Harper’s Bazaar UK that there are aspects of being married to him that are uncomfortable for her. For instance, the attention can be overwhelming, so much so that sometimes she lies when people approach her and ask her if she’s the star’s wife.
“It’s so weird to be increasingly recognized,” she said. “In Selfridges the other day, I literally had to pretend I didn’t know who ‘Sabrina’ was. I felt so bad because the girl kept mentioning how much I looked like Mrs Elba and I kept denying it. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, especially as a lot of people don’t actually know my name, they just recognize my face from social media.”
In addition to being approached, it’s been odd and sometimes “horrible” as Sabrina shared, to see herself plastered all over other people’s social media pages. Nevertheless, she hasn’t shrunk herself in the public eye, saying that a great benefit is that she’s been pushed out of her comfort zone.
“My life has changed in the past few years in ways I could never have imagined,” she said. “It’s almost like I had to rediscover who I am and what I want to do. I feel like I’ve been reborn into a different person.”
“Sometimes it can be horrible to have your face all over social media, but, in other ways, it has helped me grow out of my shell,” she added. “I even have pictures of the back of my head! It’s almost like if you could read a book about the way you looked and all of a sudden you see all these pages. It’s actually made me get way more comfortable with myself.”
The biggest benefit of all, of course, is having the love and support of her man.
“Idris is also super open and loves to give me compliments on how I look. He’s been great through this whole experience and he definitely wants me to feel comfortable and stand tall,” she said. “Right before we go onto the red carpet, he’ll hold my hand and be very supportive. He always says how much he loves my lips too, and I think that’s probably why I increasingly love a red lip. When he says, ‘that looks so nice’, it makes me smile.”
But as glamorous as she can be and has been on the red carpet, if you catch her out, she’s likely to be in her favorite look: sweats.
“I like sweatpants and having my hair in a bun, so I think my alter-ego is really frumpy,” she told the publication. “It’s always when Miss Frump comes out at the airport that the photographers will be there too, but the times I look absolutely phenomenal… no cameras!”
