Rowan Atkinson first met Sunetra Sastry in the late 1980s, when she was working as a make-up artist with the BBC. Sastry is the daughter of an Indian father and a British mother. There are some sources that claim he is of Armenian heritage but Atkinson himself did not mention publicly that he is of Armenian descent. The couple married at the Russian Tea Room in New York City on 5 February 1990. They have two children and lived in Oundle, Northamptonshire as well as in Ipsden, Oxfordshire and in Highbury, London. The couple separated in 2014 and divorced in 2015. Atkinson was formerly in a relationship with actress Leslie Ash.