Martyn Eaden: The Private British Writer Behind One of Hollywood’s Most Talked-About Divorces
Who Is Martyn Eaden?
Martyn Eaden is a British screenwriter and copywriter born on April 10, 1970, in Hampshire, United Kingdom. Most people know his name because of his marriage to American actress Chrissy Metz, the star of the hit NBC drama This Is Us. Beyond that connection, though, Martyn built a genuine writing career entirely on his own terms.
He started out as a freelance copywriter. Later, he moved into screenwriting and contributed to independent film projects like the horror thriller Death Factory (2014) and the short film Spurned (2016). Fame never interested him. Instead of chasing the spotlight, he chose to stay behind the page, doing the work he loves.
Today, Martyn lives quietly in the UK. He keeps no public social media presence. For a man briefly connected to Hollywood, that is a remarkable and deliberate choice.
Early Life: Growing Up in England
Martyn grew up in the United Kingdom. Most sources point to Hampshire as his birthplace. Other reports suggest he later settled in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, which is where he was living when he first connected with Chrissy Metz online.
Very little is publicly known about his family or childhood. Martyn has never spoken openly about his parents or home life. Still, he completed his schooling in the UK. One source references his time at Lake Western High School, though deeper academic records stay out of the public eye.
What stands out, even from limited information, is that Martyn discovered his love for language early. That passion grew into a full career. Growing up in Britain, surrounded by a strong literary culture, clearly shaped how he thought about storytelling.
Career: The Man Behind the Page
Starting as a Copywriter and Journalist
Martyn launched his professional life as a freelance copywriter and journalist. Notably, he wrote for three of the UK’s most respected newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent. Getting published in any one of those outlets takes real skill. Getting work in all three is genuinely impressive.
Beyond print journalism, he also reportedly worked with production teams behind popular British TV shows, including Coronation Street and EastEnders. The full scope of those contributions is not fully documented, but they point to a writer who understood both page and screen from early on.
During this stretch, Martyn worked out of Sheffield as an independent professional. Rather than joining a big company, he carved out a steady freelance career on his own terms.
Moving Into Screenwriting
Eventually, Martyn shifted his focus toward screenwriting. That decision pulled him into the world of independent film, specifically into the horror and thriller genres he clearly enjoys. Here are his known screenwriting credits:
Death Factory (2014) Directed by Steven Judd, this horror thriller gave Martyn one of his earliest film credits. Dark, tense, and story-driven, the project fits naturally with the kind of writing he gravitates toward.
Spurned (2016) This short film centers on a couple who splits up and then tries to repair the damage. It earned Martyn positive attention in independent film circles and showed he could move between large-scale genre stories and quiet, personal drama.
Thoughtform (2016) Also released in 2016, this project added to what became a productive creative stretch for Martyn in the mid-2010s.
Olivia Mabel Listed on his IMDb profile, this project further reflects his ongoing work as a writer in independent storytelling.
Martyn never broke into mainstream Hollywood. Rather than seeing that as a setback, he clearly treated smaller, independent productions as the right fit for his voice. He always valued craft over celebrity.
How Martyn Eaden Met Chrissy Metz
An Online Connection Across Continents
Back in 2006, Martyn and Chrissy Metz found each other on an online dating platform. At that point, Martyn was still living in Sheffield, England, while Chrissy was in the United States, grinding through early auditions and small acting jobs.
Chrissy later admitted her friends had practically dragged her into creating a dating profile. She was not sure she even wanted to be on the app. Even so, she signed up, and that small decision changed the direction of both their lives.
The two began talking online and found they connected easily. For several months, they kept the conversation going entirely over the internet, separated by thousands of miles but growing closer all the same.
Martyn Made the First Move
Once the connection felt real and strong, Martyn acted on it. He bought a plane ticket, flew from England to the United States, and met Chrissy in person for the first time.
That meeting went well. Really well. Their chemistry carried over from the screen to real life, and the relationship quickly deepened. After that first visit, Martyn kept flying back. Since Chrissy could not afford international travel at the time, he was the one making the long trips across the Atlantic to be with her.
After roughly a year of long-distance dating, Martyn proposed. Chrissy said yes.
The Marriage: A Simple Start, a Complicated Journey
The Wedding Day
Martyn and Chrissy married on January 5, 2008, in a quiet courthouse ceremony in Santa Barbara, California. No big celebration followed. No large guest list gathered. In fact, neither of their families attended, simply because neither side could afford the travel.
Just the two of them stood there and made their commitment.
Soon after the wedding, Martyn packed up his life in England and relocated to the United States to be with Chrissy. His whole family stayed behind in the UK. So not only was he starting a new life in a new country, but he was doing it without his closest support system nearby. That level of sacrifice says something meaningful about how seriously he took the marriage.
Two Very Different Personalities Under One Roof
Martyn and Chrissy brought very different energies to the relationship. He was quiet, reserved, and private. On the other hand, she was warm, outgoing, and deeply connected to a lively, loud family. For a while, those differences felt more complementary than problematic.
Gradually, though, the gap between their personalities became harder to ignore.
Chrissy spoke openly about how Martyn struggled to connect with her family. Her relatives were social and expressive, while Martyn preferred calm and quiet. When her parents came to visit, that contrast became very clear and very tense.
On top of that clash, both Martyn and Chrissy poured themselves into their individual careers. In her 2018 memoir, Chrissy admitted they were each so focused on work that they slowly stopped opening up to each other. Even while living together, emotional distance crept in and settled between them.
The Breaking Point
As the marriage cracked, each of them coped differently.
Chrissy started attending Overeaters Anonymous meetings almost daily. Food and emotional eating had long been difficult territory for her, and she was finally trying to face it. She wrote honestly about that struggle in her memoir.
Meanwhile, Martyn began spending time hiking with a female colleague from work. That situation made Chrissy deeply uncomfortable and added fresh tension to an already fragile relationship.
Things came to a head during a heated argument. Martyn told Chrissy she was selfish and narcissistic, and that everything had always revolved around her. Those words landed hard.
To her credit, Chrissy did not write about that moment to paint Martyn as a villain. Instead, she acknowledged that both of them had stopped communicating honestly. Both of them had pulled away. The marriage broke down because two people grew apart, not because one person destroyed it.
The Divorce: What Happened and How It All Ended
The Official Timeline
Martyn and Chrissy officially separated in January 2013. After more than a year of living apart, Martyn formally filed for divorce in November 2014, citing irreconcilable differences.
Chrissy did not respond to the filing. So Martyn returned to the court and asked a judge to grant the divorce without her response. The judge agreed.
Their divorce became final on December 11, 2015.
The couple had no children together. As part of the settlement, Martyn requested his 2010 Honda Accord and his Wells Fargo bank account. He also asked the court to reject Chrissy’s request for spousal support. The whole process wrapped up without major public conflict.
No Drama, No Bitterness
What is striking about this divorce is how quietly it ended. Neither Martyn nor Chrissy ran to the media to blame the other. There were no public arguments or angry statements.
Chrissy’s mother, Denise Hodge, described Martyn as a “nice guy” and called him Chrissy’s “first real love.” She admitted she never fully knew why the marriage fell apart, and she respected her daughter’s privacy on the matter.
Chrissy herself wrote about Martyn with real warmth in her memoir. She said she was working on becoming a better ex-wife than she had been a wife, which is a generous and self-aware thing to say. She added:
“Marty is such a great guy and I am grateful that we had our time together.” — Chrissy Metz, This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today (2018)
That single quote says a great deal about both of them.
Chrissy Metz: Her Life Before and After Martyn
Who Is Chrissy Metz?
Chrissy Metz was born on September 29, 1980, in Homestead, Florida. Growing up, life was not easy. Her parents, Denise and Mark Metz, moved the family to Japan after her father, a Navy serviceman, received a posting there. Chrissy’s relationship with her father remained strained throughout her childhood, a wound she has spoken about honestly in interviews and in her memoir.
Her road into acting was long and hard. For years, she took small roles and faced constant financial pressure. All of that was still very much her reality during her marriage to Martyn.
Her Career Took Off After the Split
After the separation, things changed fast for Chrissy. In 2014, she landed a role in American Horror Story: Freak Show, playing Barbara and Ima Wiggles. That role cracked a door open.
Then in 2016, she stepped into the role that transformed her career: Kate Pearson on the NBC drama This Is Us. The show ran until 2022 and turned Chrissy into a household name. Her work on the show earned her nominations for two Golden Globes, a Primetime Emmy, and a Critics’ Choice Award. She also took home two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble cast.
Furthermore, she performed “I’m Standing With You” at the 2020 Academy Awards, a song from the Christian drama Breakthrough that scored an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
Chrissy also drew from her marriage to Martyn when she co-wrote an episode of This Is Us. She shared in an interview that writing Kate’s story pulled directly from her first marriage. She described Martyn as “an angel” and said they simply grew apart over time.
Chrissy’s Memoir: A Window Into the Marriage
In 2018, Chrissy published her memoir: “This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today.” The book covers her childhood, her complicated relationship with food and body image, her career struggles, and her marriage to Martyn.
Rather than writing about Martyn with bitterness, she wrote about their relationship with honesty and care. She described how they grew emotionally distant, how they both stopped opening up, and how the marriage eventually could not carry the weight of those unspoken problems. Gratitude, not anger, filled most of those pages.
Chrissy’s Relationships After Martyn
Following the divorce, Chrissy moved forward with her personal life. First, she dated Josh Stancil, a cameraman she met while filming This Is Us. That relationship did not last long.
Later, in 2020, she began seeing Bradley Collins. The two have continued their relationship since, and Chrissy has shared moments from their time together on social media.
Martyn Eaden Today: Where Is He Now?
As of 2026, Martyn Eaden is 56 years old. Most reports suggest he returned to the United Kingdom after the divorce and has lived there privately ever since. No confirmed reports exist of a new marriage or romantic relationship.
He stays completely off social media. No public appearances. No interviews. Not a single public comment about his divorce or about Chrissy’s rise to fame.
His IMDb page still lists his writing credits, which suggests he continues working in some form. Still, the specifics of any current projects stay well out of public view.
For someone who briefly appeared in the orbit of Hollywood fame, Martyn has done something quite rare: he stepped back out of it completely and cleanly.
What Kind of Person Is Martyn Eaden?
Based on what Chrissy has shared, and on the few public details available, Martyn comes across as a man who knows exactly who he is.
Thoughtful and private, he crossed an ocean for love. That is not something an indifferent person does. Rather than chasing celebrity, he built a writing career on his own terms. Rather than airing grievances publicly after his divorce, he stayed silent and let life move on. Even today, the woman he once married still speaks of him with genuine warmth.
Chrissy’s mother called him a nice guy. Chrissy herself called him an angel. People do not use those words for someone who was dishonest or unkind. Instead, those are the words for someone who was simply the wrong match at the wrong time.
In the end, Martyn Eaden shows that you can touch fame without needing it. Not every important person in someone’s story has to be famous themselves.
Career and Life Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| April 10, 1970 | Born in Hampshire, United Kingdom |
| Early career | Freelance copywriter for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent |
| Early career | Worked with British TV production teams |
| 2006 | Met Chrissy Metz on an online dating platform |
| January 5, 2008 | Married Chrissy Metz in Santa Barbara, California |
| 2014 | Wrote the screenplay for Death Factory |
| January 2013 | Separated from Chrissy Metz |
| November 2014 | Filed for divorce |
| December 11, 2015 | Divorce officially finalized |
| 2016 | Screenwriting credits for Spurned and Thoughtform released |
| 2026 | Living privately in the UK at age 56 |
Frequently Asked Questions About Martyn Eaden
Who is Martyn Eaden?
Martyn Eaden is a British screenwriter and copywriter born on April 10, 1970, in Hampshire, UK. He is widely known as the ex-husband of actress Chrissy Metz.
When did Martyn Eaden and Chrissy Metz get married?
They married on January 5, 2008, in a small courthouse ceremony in Santa Barbara, California.
Why did Martyn Eaden and Chrissy Metz divorce?
They separated in January 2013 and finalized their divorce in December 2015, citing irreconcilable differences. In her 2018 memoir, Chrissy wrote openly about their personality differences and emotional distance.
Do Martyn Eaden and Chrissy Metz have children?
No. The two did not have any children together.
What movies did Martyn Eaden write?
His verified screenwriting credits include Death Factory (2014), Spurned (2016), Thoughtform (2016), and Olivia Mabel.
Where is Martyn Eaden now?
As of 2026, he is believed to live privately in the United Kingdom, away from social media and public life.
How old is Martyn Eaden?
Born on April 10, 1970, Martyn Eaden is 56 years old as of 2026.
Final Thoughts
Martyn Eaden never wanted the spotlight. He fell in love with a woman who happened to become one of America’s best-known actresses. When that love story ended, he simply walked back to his own life and kept writing.
No drama followed him. No bitterness surfaced in public. Just a quiet man returning to the work he cares about.
In a world that rewards noise, Martyn chose silence. In a culture that celebrates fame, he chose privacy. That choice, more than anything else, tells you exactly who Martyn Eaden is.
