John Osborne It was an ironic situation as Osborne had been playing a dentist in the company's production of Shaw's "You Never Can Tell" and that it was Osborne who had inadvertently introduced them by succumbing to a toothache he attributed to marital woes. This was in the summer of 1955 and Osborne spent much of the next two years before their divorce hoping they would reconcile. In 1956, after "Look Back in Anger" had opened, Osborne met her at the railway station in York, at which meeting she told Osborne of her recent abortion and enquired after his relationship with Mary
John Osborne details some of the brazen subterfuges he created in order to commit adultery with Gilliatt before they were married, which included inventing a film festival in Folkestone so they could go away together. Osborne proposed marriage by asking Gilliatt: "Will you marry me? It's risky, but you'd get fucked regularly." Osborne and Gilliatt were married for five years (together for seven), and became the parents of his only natural daughter, Nolan. Osborne had an abusive relationship with his daughter: he cast her out of his house when she was 17; they never spoke again. Osborne and Gilliatt's marriage suffered through