It was 2005. Everyone was obsessed with the "Boho Chic" queen Sienna Miller and her fiancé, the impossibly handsome Jude Law. They were the "it" couple of London, the kind of pair that looked like they’d been airbrushed into reality. Then, the Sunday Mirror dropped a bomb that basically leveled the tabloid landscape: Daisy Wright, the 26-year-old nanny hired to look after Law’s children, had been having a secret affair with the star.
Honestly, it wasn't just a gossip blip. It was a cultural earthquake.
The Nanny and the Movie Star
The whole thing kicked off in New Orleans. Jude was filming All the King's Men with Kate Winslet. Daisy Wright had flown out with one of Jude’s children—Rudy, from his previous marriage to Sadie Frost—to spend time with him on set. Sienna Miller, meanwhile, was busy with her own career, having just jetted off for a separate project.
The story Daisy eventually told was pretty vivid. She claimed they sat up late one night, drinking and talking about life. Daisy later wrote in her diary—which she famously sold to the press—that Jude told her she was "special" because she didn't care about the party lifestyle. He allegedly complained that it was hard to find a woman who didn't just want a career.
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Then, the cliché happened. They ended up in bed.
But it gets messier. One of the kids reportedly walked in on them. Imagine being a toddler and seeing your dad with the nanny. That child apparently told his mother, Sadie Frost, back in London. Sadie didn't mess around; she fired Daisy immediately.
The Public Apology That Shook the UK
Usually, celebs hide. They issue a "no comment" through a publicist and wait for the news cycle to eat itself. Not Jude. By July 18, 2005, the pressure was too much. He released a statement to the British Press Association that felt remarkably raw for the time.
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"I am deeply ashamed and upset that I’ve hurt Sienna and the people most close to us. I want to publicly apologize to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have caused. There is no defense for my actions which I sincerely regret."
Sienna Miller was 23. She was starring in a West End production of As You Like It at the time. Can you imagine? Having to stand in front of 800 people every night while the entire world knows your fiancé cheated with the nanny? She’s since described that period as a total blur. She literally has no memory of about six weeks of her life because the shock was so profound.
The paparazzi were a nightmare. They lived outside her house. They followed her to the theater. It was "madness," as she recently put it during a 2024 interview.
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Why the Daisy Wright Scandal Still Matters
People still talk about this because it feels like the peak of that mid-2000s tabloid era. It wasn't just a "kiss and tell." Daisy Wright gave a follow-up interview to the Mail on Sunday in 2006 where she admitted she regretted going public. She felt "dropped like a hot potato" by Jude once the news broke. She claimed she thought they had a real friendship, but as soon as the PR fire started, he cut her off.
The Career Fallout
Interestingly, the scandal didn't kill anyone's career, but it changed their trajectories.
- Sienna Miller: She became a champion for privacy. She was one of the key figures who gave evidence during the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics. She proved she was more than just a "style icon" by delivering powerhouse performances later in American Sniper and Anatomy of a Scandal.
- Jude Law: He faced a "cad" reputation for years. He and Sienna actually tried to make it work again in 2009, but it fizzled out by 2011.
- Daisy Wright: She mostly vanished from the public eye. While there is a prominent career coach named Daisy Wright, the former nanny has largely stayed out of the spotlight since the mid-2000s, likely wanting to move past the "nannygate" label.
Lessons from the Mess
Looking back, the Jude Law and Daisy Wright situation is a textbook case of how power dynamics and loneliness can collide in a high-pressure environment like a film set. Jude was lonely in New Orleans; Daisy was there. It’s a tale as old as time, but the human cost was massive.
If you're ever in a situation where your personal life goes public, Sienna Miller’s path is the one to follow. She didn't let the "betrayed woman" narrative define her. She took the trauma, processed it (eventually), and used it to fuel her art and fight for better laws.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Knowledge:
- Research the Leveson Inquiry: Look up Sienna Miller’s testimony to understand how the 2005 paparazzi culture led to actual legal changes in the UK.
- Watch "Alfie" (2004): It's the film where Jude and Sienna met. Knowing what happened later makes the chemistry on screen feel entirely different.
- Check out "Anatomy of a Scandal" on Netflix: Sienna has explicitly stated she used her real-life experience of being cheated on to play the lead role in this series.