Paul Bettany admits that watching his father fight his sexuality helped him become a better father

Actor Paul Bettany believes that watching his father struggle with his sexuality has shaped his own approach to parenting.

Paul, 49, shares two children – Stellan, 17, and Agnes, nine – with actress Jennifer Connelly, 50. She is also the mother of Kai, 23.

Her father, Thane Bettany, separated from his mother Anne in 1993, after 25 years of marriage. He then had a relationship with a man, Andy Clark, that lasted until 2015, when Andy passed away.

“The terrible thing for my dad is that, in the end, he went back to the closet, which was really awful to watch,” recalls Paul, speaking to People. “And it really speaks to the power of his Catholicism, which kind of took him to a place of shame and inability to mourn his partner in a real way.”

Andy died three months before Thane also passed away, aged 86.

Paul continued: ‘I really want my children, and I want everyone to live authentically as the person they are, and as difficult as it is, it is absolutely better than pretending to be someone else than you.

“After going through a thousand years of therapy, there is a real power to know yourself … and I have so many things to be thankful for.”

Paul suffered a great loss when his younger brother, Matthew, died when they were children. Matthew was eight, Paul was 16.

Mateus fell off a roof, leaving Paul to turn to drink, leaving the school to hit the streets. He then went to drama school at the age of 19, following in the footsteps of his parents, also actors.

Paul stars in the upcoming WandaVision alongside Elizabeth Olsen.

Elizabeth, 31, and Paul, whose characters Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) and Vision had a brief and epic romance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, reprized their roles in the new Disney + series.

See the pair fell into a suburban 1950s town and found that they are in a black and white comedy and launching themselves over the decades together.

Discussing footage of the program before the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday’s The One Show, she said: ‘It was probably a lot of fun to do.

‘Filming in front of a live studio audience, pretending to be at a Dick Van Dyke show, but that you are a superhero character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was a fun and magical thing.

‘We were in such a hurry to do this together as a whole.’

While Paul is in New York, Elizabeth is stranded outside London after filming for her latest film, Doctor Strange And The Multitude Of Madness has been suspended.

She must star in the Doctor Strange sequel alongside the main star, Benedict Cumberbatch.

She said: ‘I’m fine, I’m working here, and we’re waiting until we can get back to work

‘I love England and I will take any opportunity to be locked up here instead of LA. I love to take walks and leave the house. ‘

WandaVision, which opens on January 15, will see Kat Dennings return to play Darcy Lewis from Thor and Thor: The Dark World, and Randall Park will return as Agent Jimmy Woo of Ant-Man and The Wasp.

The cast also features Kathryn Hahn as her friendly neighbor, as well as Teyonah Parris, playing an adult version of Monica Rambeau, who was previously featured in Captain Marvel.