Helena Bonham Carter Opens Up About 'Massive Grief' Following Tim Burton Split

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The 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' actress reveals how her identity changed following her breakup and whether she's looking to date.

Helena Bonham Carter says she wanted to wear "handle with care" tape across her forehead following her split from Tim Burton.

The Oscar nominee and director went their separate ways in 2014 after 13 years together and, in June's issue of Harper's Bazaar, Bonham Carter reveals she felt especially fragile, wanting to warn people, "I'm not myself at the moment."

"With divorce, you go through massive grief. It is a death of a relationship," she explains. "Your identity, everything, changes. Everyone always says you have to be strong and have a stiff upper lip, but it’s okay to be fragile."


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Bonham Carter and Burton met on the set of 2001's Planet of the Apes and have two children together, Billy, 12, and Nell, 8. When they confirmed their split, they said they would "continue to be friends and co-parent their children."

Now, she insists they still "really do get on" and may work together again soon.

"I understand him very well and he understands me," the Alice in Wonderland star tells the magazine. "It might be easier to work together without being together any more. He always only cast me with great embarrassment."

As for whether she is looking to date again, Bonham Carter says she currently feels "very self-sufficient." "I'm not in a hurry," the 49-year-old actress says. "I've never been someone who needs to be necessarily half of something. And I have my children, which is the most important thing.”

Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Bonham Carter's new film, Alice Through the Looking Glass, and find out why the cast says Alice is the boss now in the video below.