Kate Winslet becomes Mrs RocknRoll: if it's down to practice, this will be perfect There were suggestions that the pair's career paths had diverged too widely - hers up and up, his bumping along the bottom - but that wasn't going to be a problem when she married Sam Mendes, the acclaimed British stage and movie director, in 2003. Both were top Hollywood talents, earning millions and able to choose their own projects. They bought a manor house in the Cotswolds, had a son, Joe, and worked together on the critical hit Revolution Road. "I'm so lucky to have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children who let me do what I love, and love me just the way I am," she gushed at the 2009 Oscar ceremony. Within a year, they had separated. From these, and other mishaps, has grown the perception that Kate, 37, is unlucky in love. In the Hollywood gossip sheets, she tends to be lumped in with the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock - all women of talent and beauty whose romantic woes are presumed to demonstrate that celebrity doesn't bring you happiness. Nor does it. But the surprise at Kate's past problems - and the ill-disguised murmurs of apprehension that attend her latest venture - arises more from the sense that celebrity is one of the less interesting things about her. Americans may find her vaguely exotic, but in Britain she is "Our Kate": down to earth, big-bummed, reassuringly immune to the vulgarities of fame. "My skin crawls if you call me a movie star," she once said. I think, 'Don't be ridiculous. Maybe it is because I am British. To me, Julia Roberts, now that's a movie star. Splitsville is, of course, the twin town of Hollywood. By Kate's age, Elizabeth Taylor was on her fifth husband, and Lana Turner and Zsa Zsa Gabor were each on number four. No one suggested that these magnificent old-school sirens were somehow letting the side down or concealing their true selves from the fans. Yet Kate's rackety romantic record is constantly cited as evidence that she isn't as "nice" as she seems. Can she do any better with RocknRoll, nephew of Sir Richard Branson, and currently in charge of drumming up business for his planned space-travel venture? Raised in an arty west London home, one of five sons of Sir Richard's sister Lindy, Ned has long been a popular figure on the social scene, credited with copious charm, impeccable manners and an endearing streak of eccentricity. In 2009 he married Eliza, then just 20, on Branson's private Caribbean island, Necker, followed a month later by a larger service at the Cowdray family home, conducted by a druid called J J Middleway. "What drew me to Ned was that he was unusual," Eliza later explained. He only ever treated me with deep love and respect. But 20 months later, it was all over, Eliza having decided that she would like to spend more time pursuing her pet "green" projects. In the summer of 2011, while Ned was nursing his hurt feelings on Necker, he met Kate. This was the famous occasion when Branson's house caught fire, and Winslet helped rescue the tycoon's elderly mother from the flames. The building was burnt to the ground, but, happily, a spark of love spread. They have been together ever since. Their marriage in an upstate New York barn, with barely any guests, and few family members even notified, suggests they may be adopting a low-profile approach, with the actress prepared to put work slightly down the pecking order. If so, she has earned the right. Raised near Reading, Berkshire, the daughter of jobbing actor and punk-band singer Roger Winslet and his wife Sally, she made her acting debut at 12 in a Sugar Puffs commercial and has barely stopped since. Her breakthrough came in 1992, with a part in Peter Jackson's unsettling psycho-thriller Heavenly Creatures, and four years later she landed the role of Rose in Titanic. Awards including an Oscar for Best Actress, two Golden Globes and two Baftas have followed. Her range and reputation have grown, but for many she will always be the glistening-eyed girl at the prow of the doomed liner - and as she sets off on her new voyage with Ned, we can only hope that this time, there will be no mishaps.