Emma Thompson Says Donald Trump Asked Her on a Date the Same Day She Got Divorced: ‘I Thought It Was a Joke’

The day Emma Thompson finalized her divorce from Kenneth Branagh, she also received a surprising phone call from President Donald Trump, the actress revealed.

Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland — where she was honored with the Leopard Club Award on Friday, Aug. 8 — Thompson, 66, shared that the now-president invited her on a date the very same day her divorce was made official.

According to The Telegraph, Thompson recalled being on the set of the 1998 dramedy Primary Colors when her phone rang. On the other end, she heard: “Hello, this is Donald Trump.”

“I thought it was a joke and asked, ‘How can I help you?’ Maybe he needed directions from someone,” Thompson said, per The Telegraph. “Then he said: ‘I’d love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.’ ”

Her polite reply at the time: “Well, that’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you.”

The Love Actually star said she believes Trump — who had recently separated from his second wife, model Marla Maples — may have had staff members looking for a “suitable” date.

“I realized that on that day, my divorce decree had come through. And I bet he’s got people looking for suitable people he could take out on his arm. You know, a nice divorcée, that’s what he was looking for,” she said. Thompson added that Trump apparently found her phone number in her trailer. “I mean, that’s stalking,” she joked, before imagining how things might have turned out if she had said yes.

“I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell. I could have changed the course of American history,” she quipped.

Thompson and Branagh, 64, met on the set of the 1987 miniseries Fortunes of War and married in 1989. They divorced six years later after Branagh’s affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Thompson later married actor Greg Wise in 2003, years after they met on the set of 1995’s Sense and Sensibility. The couple share two children: son Tindyebwa “Tindy” Agaba and daughter Gaia, 25, who joined her mother at the Locarno Film Festival.

Trump, meanwhile, finalized his divorce from Maples, 61, in May 1997. He was previously married to Ivana Trump and later wed Melania Trump in 2005.