How Chris saddled up for life with Dawn

ACTOR Chris O’Dowd, married to Scottish writer and presenter Dawn O’Porter since 2012, says that she committed to him after a spookily accurate reading from a fortune teller.

The Irishman is the star of a new Apple TV+ series called Big Door Prize, which premieres on Wednesday.

In the show, a mysterious ‘Morpho’ machine appears in the grocery store of a small town which, in return for $2 in quarters, can predict your destiny, and tell you whether you have yet reached your full potential.

O’Dowd plays Dusty, a teacher and Morpho-sceptic. He said: ‘I’ve never really been into fortune things, but weirdly, my wife would always have her palm read.’

He recalled that in the early days of their relationship ‘it was kind of up and down a bit... I don’t know if we thought we were going to make it or not. She went to a fortune teller, and the fortune teller told her that she was going to spend her life with a man on a horse.

‘The next minute she received a text from me. I was shooting a film in London at the time, and I was on a horse for the movie.’

The couple now have two children together.

The Bridesmaids and IT Crowd star added that the TV series strikes a chord as it plays with the idea that people sometimes need ‘permission’ to change their lives. ‘Maybe sometimes we need a catalyst... even if it’s something as light as a horoscope in a newspaper . . . to go: “OK!”’

In the show, he dances to a George Michael song and warns that sensitive viewers may wish to look away. ‘The reality is that me dancing is much like a hammer falling off a table. There’s a clang, but there’s some movement.’