Emily Atack is thrilled with her upcoming projects and personal milestones. She returns to screens in the second season of the popular Disney+ series Rivals while deep into preparations for her dream wedding to fiancé Alistair Garner.
Exciting Wedding Preparations
“It’s a really exciting time. We’re so happy,” Atack shares. The 36-year-old actress, who welcomed son Barney in June 2024 and announced her engagement the previous year, describes life with Garner—a materials scientist—as fast-paced. “Our lives go at a million miles an hour,” she says. “It’s stressful and crazy, but it’s blissful. I’m so lucky.”
The couple plans a lavish three-day celebration featuring stars from Rivals. Atack, who portrays Sarah Stratton in the adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel, has invited co-star Rufus Jones—her on-screen husband—for a reading. “It’s going to be lovely. I’ve really enjoyed planning it,” she notes. “It’s going to be three days of joy with all my favourite people; it’s going to be chaos.”
Family Life and Future Plans
Barney’s second birthday approaches this summer. Atack, fully focused on her son, has no immediate plans to expand the family. “I’m so obsessed with Barney, I cannot imagine being obsessed with another baby at this stage,” she explains. “We don’t have any plans to have more, but who knows?”
Pregnancy proved challenging for Atack, who lives with Garner in Buckinghamshire. The pair are establishing a new routine. “I love babies, but I’m focusing on my little Barney for now, because he’s a handful and he’s keeping me on my toes,” she adds.
She resumed work just 11 weeks postpartum, traveling to Budapest for the Channel 5 series The Rumour. “It was a lovely job, but that was really tough,” Atack recalls. “My body was still in pieces. I could barely walk, but I had to get back to work.”
Strong Support System
Garner, a childhood acquaintance, provides vital help. “He’s so amazing with Barney,” she says. “There’s no element of one of us doing too much. We’re both knackered, but we both really help each other. It’s definitely a very equal thing.”
Atack’s mother, actress Kate Robbins—known for voicing Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales on Spitting Image—offers unwavering support and appears in Rivals season two. “Barney is obsessed with her,” Atack reveals.
Career Renaissance
Atack first gained fame as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners, later starring in films like Dad’s Army with Catherine Zeta-Jones. She placed as runner-up on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2018, hosted The Emily Atack Show in 2020, and released the 2023 documentary Emily Atack: Asking for It? on sexual harassment experiences. After Celebrity Juice, she auditioned for acting roles again. “I thought: ‘I’m going to take a risk and start auditioning again,’” she says.
The Rivals audition transformed her career. “It’s changed my life completely,” Atack states. “I haven’t been in something of this scale since The Inbetweeners. It’s been magic.” Set in Rutshire, the series centers on the feud between Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black and David Tennant’s Lord Tony Baddingham.
Tribute to Jilly Cooper
Filming season two paused tragically when executive producer Jilly Cooper died at 88 from a fall in Gloucestershire. “It was so shocking because she was still so full of life, drinking champagne and loving parties,” Atack remembers. “She would say to us: ‘I can’t believe this is all happening with Rivals,’ and she was on a high. It felt really unfair.”
The 12-episode season, streaming on Disney+ from May 15 in two parts, honors Cooper. “I really miss her and we’re so lucky to have known her for as long as we did,” Atack says. “We just hope that we make her and her family proud.”
