Renée Zellweger Turns 55 as She Prepares to Relocate to London with Ant Anstead for Bridget Jones Sequel (2024)

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Happy birthday, Renée Zellweger!

As the two-time Academy Award winner turns 55 on April 25, the actress and her boyfriend Ant Anstead are preparing to temporarily relocate from Southern California to London as she gets ready to film the upcoming fourth Bridget Jones movie, as a source recently told PEOPLE.

"Ant is going over to the U.K. with Renée while she is filming [Bridget Jones 4] later this year,” the source said on April 2, noting that Zellweger's boyfriend of almost three years “is excited to spend time with his older kiddos." (The British-born car expert shares daughter Amelie, 20, and son Archie, 17, with his first wifeLouise Storey. They live in the U.K. while his 4-year-old son Hudson, whom he shares with ex-wifeChristina Hall, lives in California.)

Universal Pictures announced on April 9 that Zellweger will reprise her titular role in the next Bridget Jones installment. The upcoming film in the series is titled Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Hugh Grant is expected to costar in the movie and reprise his role from the series as Daniel Cleaver. Emma Thompson is also set to appear in the new movie; she cowrote and starred in 2016's third installment, Bridget Jones's Baby.

The next Bridget Jones movie is adapted from English authorHelen Fielding's novel of the same name. Chiwetel Ejiofor(12 Years a Slave) andLeo Woodall(The White Lotus) will join the series to costar in the upcoming film, with Michael Morris directing.

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Grant, 63, recently teased Mad About the Boy to PEOPLE, saying that the movie "is very moving as well as funny. The film, he said, is partially based on author Fielding's "experiences of bringing up two children by herself after her husband died."

"And so Bridget is bringing up two kids and wondering whether she should ever go back to dating," Grant added. "It's a very good script."

Zellweger and television personality Anstead first met while filming an episode of his Discovery+ seriesCelebrity IOU Joyride in 2021. PEOPLE later confirmedthat he and Zellweger were dating in June 2021, just days after Anstead and his ex-wife Christina Haack finalized a divorce.

The pair marked three years together on April 23. Zellweger is semi-frequently seen on the sidelines of her boyfriend's semi-professional soccer games in California.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boyis expected to release in theaters and on Peaco*ck Feb. 14, 2025.