Keira Knightley‘s mom must have missed the old elementary school spelling trick: “‘I’ before ‘E’, except after ‘C'” because in the new issue of Elle UK, the Oscar-winning actress, 29, revealed that her name is actually spelled wrong.
“I was meant to be named ‘Kiera’, after a Russian ice skater who was on the TV one day,” the pregnant star said. “My dad fancied her and nicked her name for me. But it was my mum who went to register my birth, and she accidentally spelled ‘ei’ instead of ‘ie’ because my mum’s crap at spelling.”
Knightley’s dad clearly had his heart set on having a baby girl named Kiera. “Apparently, when she came back he said: “WHAT THE F-CK? You’ve spelt her name wrong!” she explained of the irreversible spelling flub. “What were they going to do, though? Once it’s on the piece of paper, it’s on the piece of paper. And that’s me. A spelling error,” The Imitation Game star said.
On the cover, the Chanel Coco Rouge ambassador who’s expecting her first child with husban James Righton, sports a white and black sailor-inspired one-piece and a bold red lip, which she said is the cure for a bad day.
“Lipstick is an armour to the world,” Knightley said of her beauty must-have. “My mum had a thing when we were growing up, if she had a sh-t day or if something had gone wrong, she’d put her red lipstick on. I still abide by that.”
When it comes to style, however, Knightley whose recent award season looks have been the talk of the town, considers herself to be a fashion rebel. “Break the rules. I’ve always hated the idea that you should be wearing this or that, because it makes me feel like I’m getting everything wrong,” she said. “I hated it at school, and I don’t want it as an adult. If you want to wear a f-cking flowerpot on your head and that makes you happy, then wear a f-cking flowerpot on your head.”