Tom Hiddleston turned his Golden Eye Award acceptance speech at the Zurich Film Festival into a deeply personal tribute to Zawe Ashton and their two children.

The Loki star, 45, received the honorary award during the festival’s opening night on Sept. 24, where his new film Tenzing had its European premiere. The Zurich Film Festival honored Hiddleston for a career spanning film, television and theatre.  

While thanking the people who have supported his career, Hiddleston saved his most emotional words for Ashton.

“I would like to thank, perhaps above all else, my wife, Zawe,” he said, explaining that her “love and generosity and sacrifice” had allowed him to continue doing the work he has done over the past decade.

“The depth and meaning and commitment in it all comes from her,” he continued. “For me, the sun rises and sets with her.”

Hiddleston then turned to their children. “My children, since they came into my life, are the center of my whole world,” he said. “They are my meaning, my purpose, and everything I love the most.”

He added that he hopes they will one day watch the speech and understand just how much their presence changed his life.

“Family is everything,” Hiddleston said, explaining that the love his family has given him has also shaped the commitment he brings to his work.

Hiddleston and Ashton met while appearing together in the 2019 revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, first in London’s West End and later on Broadway. Dating reports emerged that year, although the notoriously private couple did not make their red carpet debut together until the 2021 Tony Awards.  

They became engaged in 2022 and welcomed their first child later that year. Ashton announced in June 2025 that she was expecting their second baby, and Hiddleston confirmed the child’s arrival that December. The couple have deliberately kept their children’s names and other personal details private.  

One detail from Hiddleston’s Zurich speech will probably get some attention: he called Ashton his “wife.” The pair previously described themselves publicly as engaged, and Ashton said in 2025 that they sometimes used “husband” and “wife” despite not being legally married at that time.

Whether something has changed privately since then, Hiddleston did not elaborate. What he did make unmistakably clear was where his priorities now lie: after years playing gods, spies and superheroes, the role that appears to mean the most to him is being a partner and father.

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