Gabriella graces the cover of Marie Claire UK for their February issue. Outtakes have been added to the gallery so make sure to check them out! We will add the scans as soon as they become available.

MARIE CLAIRE UK – Gabriella Wilde has ticked a lot of life boxes for someone who hasn’t yet broken 30: a modelling career, marriage, two children, six movies and even (at one point) the dubious title of ‘second most eligible woman in Britain’.

Wilde isn’t going to add that last one to her Twitter bio any time soon, and not just because she’s now married to the musician Alan Pownall. ‘I mean, what do people even qualify as eligible?’ she scoffs. ‘It’s just nonsense!’

In any case, Wilde, 28, is now best known for her role as the pug-carrying heiress Caroline Penvenen in BBC One’s Poldark, a part she won just before finding out she was pregnant with her second son, Shiloh. ‘I told them early on, I was only a matter of weeks [pregnant],’ she says. ‘I wanted to be up front, as I saw no reason why I couldn’t still do it.’

After an initial moment of panic, the show’s producer and writer Debbie Horsfield – a mother of four herself – said, ‘If she thinks she can do it, why shouldn’t she?’ Some bump-disguising period dress and camera trickery enabled her to shoot way into her third trimester.

When she returned to film season three her costumes were adapted so she could pop back to her trailer to breastfeed Shiloh between takes. ‘I really don’t think that’s the norm,’ she says of the whole experience. ‘It was lovely to be able to show people that I was just as capable of getting the job done. But yeah… it was tiring.’

Wilde lives an hour away from the Bristol Poldark set (only the outdoor bits are filmed in Cornwall) in a house in the Somerset countryside that she and her husband Alan renovated. She wanted to give her children the same mud-spattered, outdoorsy life she enjoyed as a child, running around with her younger sister and five half-siblings.

Wilde’s parents are the former model Vanessa and businessman John Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, and she shares a half-sister with Prince Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas. ‘I have a big, mixed family from different marriages,’ she says, ‘so [my childhood] was always pretty colourful and wonderful. I grew up in a house full of women; I had all my sisters like an army around me before I’d even tried to make friends.’

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Gabriella poses for Farfetch in new photoshoot and talks ‘Poldark’, acting and more in the interview below!

FARFETCH – Gabriella Wilde is something of a unicorn in show business – an actress who never planned, never wanted to act. ‘It’s unusual I know,’ explains Gabriella. ‘I was a very shy child and teenager, so it’s not something I ever gravitated towards.’ How then, did she end up winning hearts left, right and centre with her portrayal of the spirited Caroline Penvenen in the period-drama juggernaut Poldark?

A former Burberry campaign model, who counts Naomi Campbell as an early admirer, Gabriella was in her twenties and studying Fine Art when she was asked to audition for a role. ‘It found me, really,’ she says. ‘A thing of chance.’ The Hampshire native headed for Hollywood and starred in films like Endless Love and Carrie before heading back to Britain and being cast in Poldark, a smash hit for the BBC. Initially, her character Caroline appeared to be your stereotypical spoilt little rich girl, which made it all the more satisfying when she actually turned out to be a daring, acerbic sweetheart.

With Season 3 now back on our television screens, we invited Gabriella to give us a lesson in how to pull off pre-fall’s most striking globetrotting pieces. Oh, and to tell us all about being discovered by Isabella Blow, corsets versus haute couture, and the magic of Poldark…

The 3rd season of Poldark is currently airing, you joined in the 2nd – was it daunting joining a show that was already such a huge hit?
‘I’d just had a baby when it [first] came out, so I sort of didn’t feel the full weight of it. The phenomenon that is Poldark had slightly passed me by. But definitely arriving on the first day with everyone else knowing each other already, being the new girl… It was nerve-wracking.’

Viewers have totally fallen in love with Caroline. Why do you think that is?
‘I think she’s a really great female character – she’s strong, she’s bright, she’s funny. For me, it was really [about] making sure she didn’t come across as a bitch, because she is sharp with people and she’s very quick-witted with the men. I wanted that to be something about her that was fun, rather than because she was jaded or angsty. I think she is bright beyond her standing and doesn’t necessarily want to exist in the world she’s been born into.’

Poldark is also famous for somewhat flipping the female gaze…
‘Yes, the women are strong and we’re objectifying the men, it’s a nice switch! There are a lot of strong women in Poldark, it’s a great show for that. I think almost all the female characters in it are very strong, and in very different ways – they kind of represent the different strengths within women.’

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THE TELEGRAPH – Gabriella Wilde’s career started unconventionally, to say the least. She is recounting the fairy-tale-like story over an afternoon coffee in a London hotel, peppering the retelling with apologetic looks and half-shrugs. ‘It is totally ridiculous,’ she says. ‘I don’t identify with it at all any more, I feel like it happened to someone else.’

This comes from someone currently starring in Poldark, one of the BBC’s biggest and most successful series. As Caroline Penvenen, the coquettish orphaned heiress who refuses to play by polite 18th-century rules of behaviour, Gabriella’s standout performance last series won her Best Newcomer in the Radio Times Reader Awards.

Softly spoken and thoughtful, any signs of her former status as Burberry model and second-most-eligible girl in Britain (as decreed by Tatler in 2007 – Kitty Spencer, the eldest daughter of Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, came first) are few and far between.

Gabriella was ‘discovered’ when she was 14, through a chance encounter with the late style icon Isabella Blow, who she met through a friend of her mother’s. Taken with Gabriella, Blow requested they do a few shoots together. ‘I say it was low-key – but, really, how low-key was Isabella Blow?’ Gabriella laughs.

At a party soon after, she met Naomi Campbell, who insisted she be introduced immediately to her agency, Premier Model Management. ‘I was 15. She took Polaroids of me in the bathroom and sent them to her agent. The next day I was in her agent’s office and started working with them. It was totally mad and so surreal.’

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Gabriella graces the cover of the Summer 2017 issue of Town & Country magazine. And what can I say? This photoshoot is probably one of my favorites! Make sure to grab your own copy and to check the scans and outtakes in our gallery. Enjoy!

TOWN & COUNTRY – It seems to be Gabriella Wilde’s fate to be surrounded by highly-strung animals. At the Town & Country photo-shoot, she played second fiddle to a truculent peacock who had his own ideas about what constituted a good pose. And, as fans of the period blockbuster Poldark will know, she spends a large portion of her working life in the company of a little black-faced pug. Playing the deliciously manipulative heiress Caroline Penvenen, Wilde has brought a touch of glamour to the 18th-century copper mines, capturing the heart of the local doctor and defying her guardian, all the while with a lapdog clasped to her chest.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated how difficult it would be to film with a pug,” she says. “They’re so noisy – Horace snuffled over every track so each bit of the recording had to be edited. But the dog was perfect for Caroline – she’s like a child at the beginning, very young and naive, and her pet almost fulfilled the role of a teddy bear.”

There was another reason that Horace featured so prominently in Poldark; he was a convenient prop to shield Wilde’s figure, as shooting of season two coincided with her second pregnancy. “I got the role and three days later I discovered that I was pregnant,” she says. “As it was a seven-month shoot, I assumed that I probably couldn’t take it. But the writer and producer Debbie Horsfield said, ‘Hang on a second, why can’t we do this? Why can’t she work, and be a mother and pregnant, if she feels that she can?’ So we made it happen, which has been really wonderful and quite refreshing. They even let me bring Shiloh on set for the latest series when he was just a couple of months old. In my industry, it’s often assumed that if you have babies, then you’re not going to have your career.”

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Gabriella is featured in the May/June issue of The Gentleman’s Journal. Can we all agree that the new photoshoot is stunning?! Head over to our gallery for more outtakes and make sure to read her interview below.

THE GENTLEMAN’S JOURNAL – ‘I really know how to use the music now,’ says Gabriella Wilde, from behind black eyeshadow and a mess of tousled hair. Looking every inch the rock chick, she adds: ‘It’s become a huge part of my life.

And that’s no understatement. Wilde, a model-turned-actress, married musician Alan Pownall – of electronic outfit Pale – in 2014, and has since been using selected songs and playlists in her day job, listening to music to get into character, or prepare for scenes.

Today, under the speakers of an East-London studio, Wilde is singing the praises of musicians.

‘I’m totally in awe of them,’ smiles the 27-year-old. ‘In another life, I’d have loved to be musical – if only I had the talent!’

But, despite her enthusiasm – and eagerness to cue up songs ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Frank Ocean – Gabriella isn’t the wild child she appears. The tearaway look may be hers today, but the actress has two young children at home – and has never been interested in pursuing a socialite lifestyle.

‘I’ve just never felt comfortable in those circles,’ says Wilde candidly. ‘I was never pulled to it, and always found myself uncomfortable in those situations. When I was younger, I really tried to go in an opposite direction. But I guess that’s the thing about being a teenager,’ she continues. ‘You don’t want to be put in a box. I’ve never really liked people who make assumptions about who I am and, whilst I obviously realise there’s nothing wrong with partying, it’s just never been something I enjoy. Instead, I broke out of that box – but by not doing rather than doing. I simply didn’t turn up in that world. I didn’t exist there.’

Instead, Wilde – who began modelling at 14 – spent her younger years balancing school with work and regarded herself as ‘quite a serious child’.

‘I was also extremely shy,’ reveals the actress. ‘I never spoke when I was modelling, because I was terrified the entire time. I still can feel uncomfortable as an actress now. In fact, some people wonder how I even can act, but you feel safer in character. You can disconnect yourself.’

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THE TIMES – When Gabriella Wilde and her husband first contemplated a move to the country, the actress and former model was hesitant. Now, standing in the revamped kitchen of her Somerset home, blonde ponytail swishing as she makes herbal tea, she couldn’t be more content.

If it wasn’t for the relocation, she might never have bagged a role as the coquettish Caroline Penvenen in Poldark – her minxy antics have been thrilling the 5m-plus viewers of the drama’s second series. Nor would she have given birth to her second son in the master bedroom suite (“The builders had to put up scaffolding to hold up the birth pool. They obviously thought I was completely mad”), or have an immaculate designer farmhouse.

Hillhouse, her rambling home, is set in glorious countryside just outside Bruton. A turning takes you onto a gravelled drive where you are greeted with spectacular autumnal views; you can just about make out King Alfred’s Tower amid the fields and trees. Through a nondescript arch, you enter a wild, overgrown garden set within a courtyard, then a grey door leads you into the quirky property that Wilde, 27, shares with her musician husband, Alan Pownall, and their sons, Sasha, 2, and Shiloh, five months.

Formerly three cottages, now conjoined, the property was on the market for œ1.3m in 2015, but with the help of a local property finder, the couple bought it for a little more than œ1m. “This was the first one we both felt was right,” Wilde recalls. “The view was incredible – I came in and was shocked by it. You can see for miles. It’s really a special spot and it has a calm energy.”

The peace and quiet was soon disrupted by an extensive year-long refurbishment, under the guidance of the interior designer Sophie Ashby. The layout was reconfigured and the downstairs living area, which has an Aga, a woodburner, a fireplace and radiators, is now free-flowing yet cosy. “I’m someone who hates being cold,” says Wilde, who is dressed in a black poloneck jumper, spray-on grey jeans and chunky black boots.

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Gabriella is featured in the new issue of The Times magazine. She talks about Poldark, her family, modeling and acting in her interview, that you’ll find below. Make sure to check the new photoshoot in our gallery. Big thanks to my friend Helen at Kit Harington Online for the help!

THE TIMES – It is not especially hard to understand why, when embarking on a career as an actress, Gabriella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe changed her name to something a little more snappy. Not only is Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe a bit of a mouthful, but to the readers of gossip columns and glossy magazines, it comes loaded with associations: the aristocratic English rose from the glamorous, bohemian society family. The sister, Isabella, who allegedly broke Prince William’s heart. The stepsister, Cressida Bonas, who did the same to poor Prince Harry. The polo-playing DJ brother called Jacobi. It comes with a lot of baggage, the Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe name. Gabriella Wilde, on the other hand, does not.

“The most obvious name to choose was my mother’s maiden name, but that was Hubbard,” she explains. “Not very glamorous.”

In the end her agent saw a book by Oscar Wilde on her bookcase and Gabriella Wilde was born. Having cut her teeth in Endless Love, St Trinian’s and The Three Musketeers, she’s been dominating the nation’s Sundays as Caroline Penvenen, a minxy heiress in Poldark. Did she fall in love with a topless Aidan Turner in the first series, like the rest of us?

“I was probably the only person in the country who didn’t watch it,” she confesses. “I’d just had a baby so I was in a tired hole with my son.”

The day after she got the part of Caroline, she found out she was pregnant with her second son. “I couldn’t celebrate because I was panicking that I was pregnant and freaking out about how I was going to make it work.”

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