Age, Biography, and Wiki
Helena Bonham Carter was born on May 26, 1966, making her 59 years old as of 2025. A native of Islington, London, she is the youngest of three children born to Raymond Bonham Carter, a member of a prominent British political family, and Elena Bonham Carter, a psychotherapist. The family moved to Golders Green, where Helena attended South Hampstead High School and later completed her A-levels at Westminster School.
Despite being denied admission to King’s College, Cambridge—reportedly due to concerns that she would leave to pursue acting—she went on to have a prolific career in the entertainment industry. Helena Bonham Carter is celebrated for her roles in period dramas and collaborations with acclaimed directors like Tim Burton. She has appeared in over 100 film and television projects, including major franchises such as Harry Potter, where she played Bellatrix Lestrange.
| Occupation | Stage Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 26 May 1966 |
| Age | 59 Years |
| Birth Place | Islington, London, England |
| Horoscope | Gemini |
| Country | England |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While precise and up-to-date measurements are not consistently published, Helena Bonham Carter is generally reported to be about 5’4” (163 cm) tall. Her weight and body measurements are not widely disclosed, in line with her preference for privacy regarding such details. Publicly available references do not provide recent updates on these statistics.
| Height | 163 cm |
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Dating & Relationship Status
As of 2025, Helena Bonham Carter is reported to be single. She was previously in a long-term relationship with director Tim Burton, which lasted over a decade and produced two children. The pair collaborated on several notable films, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and "Alice in Wonderland". Since their separation, she has kept her personal life out of the public spotlight.
Her father, Raymond Bonham Carter, who came from a prominent British political family, was a merchant banker and served as the alternative British director representing the Bank of England at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, during the 1960s. Her mother, Elena (née Propper de Callejón), is a psychotherapist who is of Spanish and mostly Bohemian and French-Jewish background, and whose parents were diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejón from Spain and painter Baroness Hélène Fould-Springer. Bonham Carter's paternal grandmother was politician and feminist Violet Bonham Carter, daughter of H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the first half of the First World War.
When Bonham Carter was five, her mother had a serious nervous breakdown, from which she needed three years to recover. Soon afterwards, her mother's experience in therapy led her to become a psychotherapist herself. Bonham Carter has since paid her to read her scripts and deliver opinions on the characters' psychological motivations. Five years after her mother's recovery, her father was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma. He suffered complications during an operation to remove the tumour, which led to a stroke, leaving him half-paralysed and using a wheelchair. With her brothers at college, Bonham Carter was left to help her mother cope. She later studied her father's movements and mannerisms for her role in The Theory of Flight. He died in January 2004.
Her maternal grandfather, Spanish diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejón, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust during the Second World War, for which he was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations, and posthumously received the Courage to Care Award from the Anti-Defamation League. His own father was a Bohemian Jew, and his wife, Helena's grandmother, was a Jewish convert to Catholicism. He later served as Minister-Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Her maternal grandmother, Baroness Hélène Fould-Springer, was from an upper-class Jewish family; she was the daughter of Baron Eugène Fould-Springer (a French banker descended from the Ephrussi family and the Fould dynasty) and Marie-Cécile von Springer (whose father was Austrian-born industrialist Baron Gustav von Springer, and whose mother was from the de Koenigswarter family). Hélène Fould-Springer converted to Catholicism after the Second World War. Hélène's sister was the French philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (1916–2003), the wife of Baron Élie de Rothschild, of the prominent Rothschild family (who had also married within the von Springer family in the 19th century); Liliane's other sister, Therese Fould-Springer, was the mother of British writer David Pryce-Jones.
In 2009, Bonham Carter was the mother squirrel narrator in the 30-minute animated film adaptation of the best-selling children's book The Gruffalo, which was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2009. Bonham Carter joined the cast of Tim Burton's 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland, as the Red Queen. She appears alongside Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, and Harry Potter co-star Alan Rickman. Her role was an amalgamation of the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen. In early 2009, Bonham Carter was named one of The Times's top-10 British Actresses of all time, along with fellow actresses Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Julie Andrews, and Audrey Hepburn.
In early October 2008, Bonham Carter became the first patron of the charity Action Duchenne, the national charity established to support parents and sufferers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
In 2001, Bonham Carter began a relationship with American director Tim Burton, whom she met while filming Planet of the Apes. Burton cast her in a number of his other films, including Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows. After their separation, Bonham Carter said, "It might be easier to work together without being together anymore. He always only cast me with great embarrassment."
On 23 December 2014, the two announced that they had "separated amicably" earlier that year. Of the separation, Bonham Carter told Harper's Bazaar: "Everyone always says you have to be strong and have a stiff upper lip, but it's okay to be fragile. ...You've got to take very small steps, and sometimes you won't know where to go next because you've lost yourself." She added: "With divorce, you go through massive grief—it is a death of a relationship, so it's utterly bewildering. Your identity, everything, changes."
Since 2018, Bonham Carter has been in a relationship with art historian Rye Dag Holmboe. Holmboe is 21 years her junior. Regarding their age gap, Bonham Carter told The Times in 2019: "Everybody ages at a different rate. My boyfriend is unbelievably mature. He's an old soul in a young body, what more could I want? People are slightly frightened of older women, but he isn't. Women can be very powerful when they're older."
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Net Worth and Salary
Helena Bonham Carter’s estimated net worth in 2025 is reported between $35 million and $60 million, depending on the source. Most reputable outlets, including Celebrity Net Worth and Enrichest, place her net worth at approximately $60 million as of 2024 and into 2025.
Her substantial earnings are attributed to her extensive filmography, which includes blockbuster roles in the Harry Potter series, "Alice in Wonderland," "The King’s Speech," and collaborations with Tim Burton. In addition to acting, she has also invested in real estate and signed endorsement deals, further augmenting her wealth.
Bonham Carter, who has had no formal acting training, entered the field winning a national writing contest in 1979, and used the money to pay for her entry into the actors' Spotlight directory. She made her professional acting debut at the age of 16 in a television commercial. She also had a minor part in the 1983 TV film A Pattern of Roses.
Career, Business, and Investments
Helena Bonham Carter has enjoyed a dynamic and successful career spanning over four decades. She made her big-screen debut in "A Room with a View" (1985) and quickly became known for her ability to portray complex characters in both period and contemporary films.
Her work with Tim Burton has been especially notable, with critically and commercially successful films such as "Sweeney Todd," "Corpse Bride," and "Alice in Wonderland". She played the iconic villain Bellatrix Lestrange in the last four Harry Potter films, one of the most lucrative franchises in film history.
Bonham Carter has two older brothers; Edward and Thomas. They were brought up in Golders Green, and she was educated at South Hampstead High School, and completed her A-levels at Westminster School. Bonham Carter applied to King's College, Cambridge, but was rejected "because officials were afraid that she would leave mid-term to pursue an acting career."
Bonham Carter, who speaks French fluently, starred in a 1996 French film titled Portraits chinois. That same year, she played Olivia in Trevor Nunn's film version of Twelfth Night. One of the high points of her early career was her performance as the scheming Kate Croy in the 1997 film adaption of The Wings of the Dove, which was highly acclaimed internationally and saw her receive her first Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Then followed Fight Club in 1999, in which she played Marla Singer, a role for which she won the 2000 Empire Award for Best British Actress.
In 2022 Bonham Carter was appointed to the honorary position of the London Library’s president, making her their first female president. She has been a member of the London Library since 1986.
In 1994, Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh met while filming Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. They began an affair while Branagh was still married to Emma Thompson. At the time, Thompson's career was soaring, while Branagh was struggling to make a success of his first big-budget film. Following the affair, Branagh and Thompson divorced in 1995. In 1999, after five years together, Bonham Carter and Branagh separated.
Social Network
Helena Bonham Carter maintains a relatively low profile on social media. As of 2025, she does not have public, official accounts on major platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. She prefers to focus on her craft and personal life rather than engaging directly with fans via social media.
Her early films led to her being typecast as a "corset queen" and "English rose", playing pre- and early 20th century characters, particularly in Merchant Ivory films. Uncomfortable with this image, she states: "I looked, as someone said, like a bloated chipmunk". In 1994, Bonham Carter appeared in a dream sequence during the second series of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, as Edina Monsoon's daughter Saffron, who was normally played by Julia Sawalha. Throughout the series, references were made to Saffron's resemblance to Bonham Carter.
Thompson has said she has "no hard feelings" towards Bonham Carter, calling her affair with Branagh "blood under the bridge". She explained: "You can't hold on to anything like that. It's pointless. I haven't got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago. She's a wonderful woman." Thompson, Branagh, and Bonham Carter all later went on to appear in the Harry Potter series (none of them shared any scenes); Thompson and Bonham Carter both appeared in Order of the Phoenix.
In May 2021, Bonham Carter featured in a commercial for British furniture retailer Sofology, taking viewers through the quirks and stylistic flourishes of her home. In 2021, she wrote an article for Harper's Bazaar on the influence of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on her life since she first read the book as a child: "As far back as I can remember, I’ve been a wannabe Alice", adding, "everywhere I look at home, every view has some reference to Alice: frog footman candlesticks, teacup constructions, a teapot lamp, a chessboard teapot, an oversized pocket watch, undersized doors, bunnies, internal windows that look like mirrors, and mirrors that look like windows".
Education
Helena Bonham Carter’s education includes attendance at South Hampstead High School in London and completion of her A-levels at Westminster School. She did not pursue higher education at a university, as her application to King’s College, Cambridge was reportedly rejected due to her acting ambitions. Despite the lack of formal acting training, she launched her professional career through a national writing contest, using the prize money to join the actors’ Spotlight directory.
Bonham Carter is a distant cousin of actor Crispin Bonham-Carter. Her other prominent distant relatives include Lothian Bonham Carter, who played first-class cricket for Hampshire, his son, Vice Admiral Sir Stuart Bonham Carter, who served in the Royal Navy in both world wars, and pioneering English nurse Florence Nightingale.
Summary Table
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Age | 59 years (born May 26, 1966) |
| Height | ~5'4" (163 cm) |
| Net Worth | $35–60 million (most sources: ~$60 million) |
| Relationship | Single |
| Notable Roles | Harry Potter, The Crown, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd |
| Social Media | No public official accounts |
| Education | South Hampstead High School, Westminster School (A-levels), no university degree |
