NEED TO KNOW
Allen Leech’s youngest daughter is learning just how famous her dad is — and is using it to her advantage.
The Downton Abbey star, 44, revealed that his younger daughter — who was born in late 2022 — has taken notice of all the posters featuring him on his latest film Downton Abbey: The Grande Finale in L.A.
“It’s kind of hitting her now that all the posters are up and stuff, and she’s finding that kind of — I think she’s working it out,” Leech admitted to PEOPLE.
“She’s seen the pictures show up on our digital frame, and she said to Allen the other day, ‘What does it feel like?’ You know?,” chimed in Leech’s wife, actress Jessica Blair Herman, 38. “And I think that it’s the first time she’s processing like, ‘Other people can see my dad.’ ”
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“And she’s very proud. It’s very sweet,” Herman added.
The Imitation Game star also noted that thanks to the Downton Abbey posters, his youngest daughter has gotten the idea in her head that he could take her to the Crawley family’s estate — which is featured prominently in the show and the films.
“Our youngest [thought] that the Downton Abbey themed bus stops in L.A. [were] Downton Abbey, so she [kept] wanting to stop and go to see [it],” he said. “Now she really knows that it’s a real castle. She’s like, ‘I want to go to Downton Abbey,’ the real one in England.”
He shared that he hopes to take her to the Crawleys’ iconic estate one day, as Herman noted that their eldest daughter had already visited the real filming location due to lucky timing.
“We were able to take our eldest because you guys were filming the first movie,” Herman recalled, to which Leech responded, “Yeah, but our youngest hasn’t, but she will.”
The actor previously revealed that he was expecting his second child with Herman at the premiere of the 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era. He told PEOPLE ahead of the film’s premiere, “I’m very happy to say I’m very happily married and expecting our second child.”
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Leech and Herman wed in January 2019 in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, according to HELLO!. That same month, Leech opened up to PEOPLE about their first meeting at an Entertainment Weekly SAG awards afterparty three years ago.
“A friend of mine, Tom, we were about to leave the party and being Irish and having two rubber arms, he said, ‘Do you want one more drink?’ ” he continued. “And I said, ‘Yeah, okay,’ went in, ordered, turned around, saw this vision in a velvet dress and said, ‘Tommy, I’m going to dance with that girl.’ ”
The rest was history, and the pair welcomed their first child — a daughter — in 2020.
