Newton is the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker, and Nick Newton, a white English laboratory technician and artist. Her birthplace is reported to be Zambia in biographies, but she has said that she was born in London, during a two week trip by her parents. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi and the name "Thandie" is pronounced TAN-dee. According to Newton, her mother is a Zimbabwean Shona Princess. She was raised in London and Penzance, Cornwall, and educated at Downing College, Cambridge.Newton married English writer and director Ol Parker in 1997. The couple have two daughters: Ripley, born in 2000, and Nico, born in 2004. Her daughters were named after the character Ripley in the Alien films and the cult singer of The Velvet Underground fame.
In 2006, she contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the NSPCC. In it, she writes vividly about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall and the way in which the county's vibrant cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning".
Newton swapped her BMW X5 for a Toyota Prius after protesters bombarded the car with eggs at the gates of her daughters’ school. She then wrote to her celebrity friends, asking them to join her in switching to more environmentally sound cars.
Quick Info
Born Thandiwe Adjewa Newton
November 6, 1972
Spouse(s) Ol Parker (1997-present) 2 children
Comments