DOWNTON Abbey actress Michelle Dockery is reported to be devastated following the death of her Irish fiancé.
John Dineen (36), who worked in financial public relations at a London firm, passed away on Sunday in the Marymount Hospice in his native Cork, according to the Irish Examiner.
The couple are understood to have started dating in 2013 after being introduced by Dockery’s Downtown co-star, Allen Leech, who is originally from Killiney in Co Dublin, and plays chauffeur Tom Branson in the ITV period drama.
They were believed to have become engaged last February with media reports that Dockery had broken the news to the cast of the hit show during a script reading.
However, the pair were rarely spotted in public, preferring to keep their relationship private.
Dockery told an interviewer in September last year: “I have a wonderful man in my life from Ireland. We were introduced by Allen Leech. That’s all you need to know.”
Dineen, who grew up on a dairy farm in Waterfall, in the outskirts of Cork city, studied at University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD), before completing his studies in 2005 and landing a job at FTI Consulting.
It is understood that he died after battling an illness for some time and that his funeral service will take place in Cork tomorrow.
