Who Is Gwendoline Christie's Boyfriend? All About Giles Deacon

Gwendoline Christie and her long time love, Giles Deacon, are partners in work and life.

The actress rose to fame portraying Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones, a female knight known for her bravery, loyalty and fighting skills, but in real life, Christie loves getting in touch with her sartorial side. Standing at 6’3", the statuesque star has become a fashion icon, so her romance with a couture designer seems meant to be.

The couple started dating in 2013 and since then, Christie has worn several of Deacon’s gowns on the red carpet. Although the actress doesn’t talk about their relationship often, she isn’t shy about praising him as a designer. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop being in awe of my partner’s colossal talent,” she told The London Evening Standard in 2018.

Christie has been vocal about learning to embrace her body and challenge conventional Hollywood standards of beauty. She previously opened up about finally feeling “beautiful on-screen” thanks to her starring role on Wednesday. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022 she explained that her look for the role made her feel “celebrated and beautiful.”

With Deacon, she has that same feeling. “You always feel celebrated as a woman when you wear [his clothes],” she told The Telegraph in 2016. Meanwhile, the fashion designer noted to the British newspaper that working with Christie is “a pleasure” for him, calling the actress "transformative."

So who is Gwendoline Christie’s boyfriend? Here’s everything to know about Giles Deacon and his relationship with the actress.   

He is a celebrity fashion designer

Prior to his relationship with Christie, Deacon was a well-known fixture in the fashion world. He trained at Central Saint Martins in London and has worked for the likes of Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Emanuel Ungaro as well as launching his own label, GILES, in 2004.

According to ShowStudio.com, Deacon debuted his inaugural couture collection in 2016. His work has received high praise, including in 2006 when he won the British Fashion Designer of the Year award.

Over the years, he has dressed a number of celebrities, including Cate Blanchett, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Beyoncé and Kate Hudson. One of his most memorable designs was worn by Billy Porter at the 2020 Oscars. The custom gown featured a structured bodice with gold feathers and a full ball skirt with a graphic design inspired by Kensington Palace.

The outfit’s ties to royalty are especially fitting given that Deacon designed Pippa Middleton’s full-lace wedding dress in 2017.

“I wanted that ‘how-was-that-done?’ factor,” he told The Business of Fashion about the dress, adding, “It’s all hand-pieced which is why you don’t actually see a seam.”

They met through mutual friends

Deacon has been in a relationship with Christie for over ten years. The pair first met through mutual friends and began dating in 2013.

However, the couple, who now live together in London, tend to keep their relationship private, so the exact timeline of their romance is unknown.

He was “instantly smitten” by Christie

In 2018, Deacon recalled meeting Christie for the first time saying that he was “instantly smitten.”

“I met Gwendoline six years ago through a mutual friend and was instantly smitten,” he told Grazia magazine (per Yahoo!). "For a million different reasons, I thought she was extraordinary. The way she carries herself, it was not like anything I’d seen before.”

He went on to talk about his admiration for her confidence and intellect. “She has her very own innate sense of self and her knowledge of film and fashion in film wipes the floor with mine," Deacon added.

Christie is his muse

Among his celebrity clientele is, of course, Christie. The actress has worn Deacon's designs on multiple red carpets over the years and he’s described her as his “muse” in the past.

“It’s a pleasure to work with your partner,” Deacon told The Telegraph about creating gowns for her. “She’s a fantastic muse. She’s a character herself, and her trail of various characters is brilliant. She’s pretty transformative, which is always an interesting thing from a designer’s point of view.”

In another interview with British Vogue, the designer spoke more about how Christie inspires him when it comes to fashion.

“She understands clothes, she enjoys the whole process of it, and she understands the complexities of the movement and volume,” he explained, adding, “The element of performance is essential.”  

She’s “in awe” of him

Christie has been equally effusive about her partner. “I’m lucky enough to work with designers who design especially for me, like my partner, Giles Deacon,” she told Harpers Bazaar. “I’ve always been immeasurably lucky to have friends who are outstanding in their fields – it’s a heavenly thing to have."

During an interview with Vogue for the magazine’s “Life in Looks” series, the Wednesday actress detailed some of her most notable fashion looks, including one of her favorites: a cherry-red gown designed by Deacon that she wore to the 2015 SAG Awards.

“I wanted to feel really alive and vibrant and sexual,” Christie said. “I also wanted to show my back because I was very strong.”

She continued, explaining that they worked together to create the dress. “It was a true collaboration and I felt incredible. I felt really strong and vibrant and I felt like me," she added.

Christie went on to describe her emotional connection to the gown. “I will love this dress forever. I’ve worn it many, many different times,” she said, calling it “a dress that’s truly about love.”

They worked together on The Sandman

Aside from their frequent red carpet collaborations, the two have also worked together professionally. Christie was cast in Netflix’s The Sandman as Lucifer, the ruler of Hell, and Deacon created her entire wardrobe for the show.

“Gwendoline provided me with great insight into her vision of the character from a sense of action, poise and what her Lucifer was about and was about to undertake,” he told Tudum, Netflix’s companion site. “This really helped to galvanize the sense of silhouette, graphicness, color choices, fabrications and overall direction of the costumes.”

The Sandman wasn’t the only time the couple worked together, either. In 2019, Christie starred in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre in London and Deacon designed two of the dresses she wore onstage.

"I’ve worked with Giles on pieces for me over the years and he just has such an impressive knowledge of design and such rigor and discipline, coupled with this extraordinary, wild imagination,” she told British Vogue in an interview the same year. “It’s amazing to work with someone who knows what your strengths are, who knows how to make you feel confident, who knows how to make you look good.”

“He’s an extraordinary person,” she continued. “He works with such great sensitivity and he’s unafraid of making women bold and intelligent.”