Robin Wright has left the U.S. behind, calling America a “s–tshow,” and found a new sense of freedom while living with her partner Henry Smith on the English seaside.

Robin Wright, the Golden Globe–winning actress whose career spans nearly four decades, has stunned fans with a candid revelation:

she has left the United States behind, calling America “a s–tshow,” and started a new life on the English coast with her partner, architect Henry Smith.

At 59, just months away from turning 60, the *House of Cards* and *Forrest Gump* star says her trans-Atlantic relocation has been nothing short of “liberating.”

“I love being in this country,” Wright told *The Times of London* in a wide-ranging interview published Sunday. “There’s a freedom of self here.

People are so kind. They’re living. They’re not in the car in traffic, panicked on a phone call, eating a sandwich. That’s most of America. Everything’s rush, competition and speed.”

The Texas-born, California-raised actress explained that the frantic lifestyle she witnessed in Los Angeles and beyond ultimately pushed her to seek quiet. “Everyone’s building a huge house, and I’m just done with all that — I love the quiet.

And I’ve met my person. Finally,” she added, referring to Smith, her boyfriend of more than a year. The couple are currently renting a home on the English seaside, a world away from the glitz of Hollywood.

Her relationship with Smith began in the most unexpected of ways: a chance encounter at a pub. Wright recalled sitting down and asking a man if she could feed his dog, only to learn that the animal wasn’t his. The real owner was Smith, who stood at the bar, towering at 6-foot-2.

“He put his pint down, came over to me and grabbed my shoulders,” Wright said. “He goes, ‘Who the f–k are you?’ And I said, ‘Who the f–k are you?’ And that was it.”

What began as a brash exchange quickly blossomed into a partnership that Wright now describes as both grounding and “relaxing.” “He is a sweetheart and just a good, decent adult. He’s a man,” she said.

The move places Wright in the company of other American celebrities who have chosen to live abroad in recent years.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Richard Gere, Rosie O’Donnell, and Lena Dunham have all relocated, citing personal or lifestyle reasons. For Wright, however, the decision carried deeper undertones.

“It’s liberating to be done,” she explained. “Be done with searching, looking, and getting 60% of what you wanted.”

Wright’s reflections are strikingly candid for an actress who has often kept her personal life guarded.

She has been married three times: first to *Santa Barbara* actor Dane Witherspoon in the late 1980s, then to Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn from 1996 to 2010, with whom she shares daughter Dylan, 34, and son Hopper, 32.

In 2018, she married fashion executive Clément Giraudet, filing for divorce in 2022 after four years of marriage.

Her decades-long relationship with Penn remains one of Hollywood’s most high-profile unions. While Penn’s career frequently kept him away, Wright says his intermittent presence shaped their children’s upbringing in complicated ways.

“I have a huge regret as a mother and have experienced the fallout of this regret for many years with my kids — I wasn’t hard enough on them,” she admitted.

“He’d come back and be the policeman and then he’d leave me with the residue. Then I would soften the blow. We were both extremes. They didn’t get that grey area in the middle, which is stern, and that is what they needed.”

Despite the regret, Wright says she has maintained strong bonds with Dylan and Hopper, both of whom have pursued creative careers of their own.

Dylan has worked as a model and actress, while Hopper has appeared in independent films and collaborated with his father on projects. Wright frequently posts about her children on Instagram, offering fans rare glimpses into their lives.

The move to England also comes as Wright continues to embrace new professional challenges.

Earlier this year, she accepted the prestigious Cristal Nymph Award at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, honoring her contributions to television, most notably her Emmy-nominated role as Claire Underwood in Netflix’s *House of Cards*.

She will next be seen in the upcoming drama *Here*, directed by Robert Zemeckis, reuniting her with *Forrest Gump* co-star Tom Hanks.

Yet, in her remarks to *The Times*, Wright emphasized that career milestones are no longer the centerpiece of her life. Instead, she is looking ahead to what she calls the “third act” — a stage defined by peace, companionship, and exploration.

“I’m turning 60 and I’m, like, ‘Is this it?’ I love being alone and I’ve done that many times. But I’m, like, ‘I want to grow old with somebody, and travel and see the world,’” she said.

Her sharp critique of the United States as a “s–tshow” underscores a growing dissatisfaction among certain public figures with American cultural and political discourse.

While Wright did not single out specific issues, her commentary resonates at a time when many Americans are openly voicing frustrations over polarization, consumerism, and the breakneck pace of modern life.

“There’s a freedom here,” she said of England. “People aren’t so trapped in that cycle of panic and performance. They’re just… being.”

For a woman who has lived much of her life in the spotlight, Wright’s turn toward a quieter, more intimate existence marks a dramatic but perhaps overdue shift.

The actress who once embodied steely ambition as the fictional president of the United States now seeks something simpler: love, calm, and authenticity. “That’s exactly what I wanted,” she said. “To be seen and loved for who I am.”

As Wright embraces seaside walks and pub nights instead of red carpets and traffic jams, her departure from America may be read as more than just a relocation.

It is, in many ways, a declaration — one that reflects both personal renewal and broader disillusionment with the country she once called home. And for Robin Wright, the message is clear: leaving America was not an escape, but a liberation.