HARRY Potter would be shocked to hear about the scandalous life Albus Dumbledore leads these days.
Irish actor Michael Gambon, 67, who plays the wise old Hogwarts headmaster, is involved in an unusual love triangle with his wife of 45 years, Lady Anne Gambon, and movie set designer Philippa Hart, who’s 25 years his junior and gave birth to his baby last May - a situation apparently being tolerated by both women, reports Britain’s Daily Mail.
“I think Anne finds it strange that people say Michael left her for this other woman. As far as anyone who knows them is concerned, they are still very much married,” Geraldine Hasler, an acquaintance of the Gambons, told the paper. “She is very supportive of Michael. They go to quite a few events together.”
In fact, the chain-smoking, white-haired performer, who moved out on Lady Anne and into a bachelor pad a few years back, recently reinstated himself in the marital home in Kent, while still remaining close to Hart, the Mail reports. Gambon even celebrated his return by buying a pair of sports cars for himself and his wife - a Mercedes for Lady Anne and a sleek black Audi R8 for himself that he’s cheekily christened “Teutonic Viagra.”
The cars were a “thanks for having me back present” to her, the Mail reports. “While he has been playing happy families with [Hart] in London since she gave birth in May, he has at the same time quietly continued his role as landed gent with his wife at his country pile.”
A pal of Lady Anne told the paper: “She is friendly and chatty, though she has never once mentioned anything to do with Michael’s mistress or the baby. But she happily talks away about him and which new part he is playing . . . I can’t imagine she can be pleased with the situation, but she seems to put up with it and I’d say she definitely still loves him. Maybe she realizes the only way to keep him is to let him lead this rather odd double life.”
A spokesman for Clifford Stevens, the agent who represents Gambon - now filming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” - told Page Six the actor would have no comment.