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Meet Sabrina Elba, Idris Elba’s model and activist wife: the UN goodwill ambassador married the Luther star in Vera Wang, has a skincare brand, and is pals with Bella and Gigi Hadid

Meet Sabrina Elba, the activist and model who’s much more than Idris Elba’s wife. Photo: @sabrina.elba/Instagram
Meet Sabrina Elba, the activist and model who’s much more than Idris Elba’s wife. Photo: @sabrina.elba/Instagram

  • Model Sabrina Dhowre met the actor and DJ in a jazz bar in Vancouver; two years later they married in a lavish ceremony in Morocco where she wore custom Roland Mouret and Vera Wang
  • Since then, the 34-year-old has worked to alleviate food poverty for the Ifad, met French president Emmanuel Macron, and created an inclusive skincare brand, S’Able Labs

In 2017, actor and rapper Idris Elba famously told Essence magazine that he didn’t plan on marrying again.

Just months later, Elba and Sabrina Dhowre met while he was filming The Mountain Between Us in Vancouver and it was reportedly “love at first sight” when their eyes met across a dimly lit jazz bar. A year later, Elba proposed at one of his film screenings in front of all the cast and crew. It seems like third time’s a charm for the 51-year-old Brit, who decided he was just too in love with Sabrina not to get married again.

Idris Elba once said he wasn’t going to marry again, but clearly changed his mind when he met Sabrina Dhowre. Photo: @sabrinaelba/Instagram
Idris Elba once said he wasn’t going to marry again, but clearly changed his mind when he met Sabrina Dhowre. Photo: @sabrinaelba/Instagram
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And we can’t say we blame him. Here’s what you need to know about Sabrina Elba, the Luther star’s multi-hyphenate wife.

Sabrina Elba is Canadian-Somalian

Vancouver native Sabrina Dhowre Elba thought she wanted to become a lawyer. Photo: @maryamegal/Instagram
Vancouver native Sabrina Dhowre Elba thought she wanted to become a lawyer. Photo: @maryamegal/Instagram

Sabrina Dhowre Elba grew up in Vancouver, Canada and is of Somali origin. One of five children raised by a single mother – she has two brothers and two sisters – Elba had initially wanted to become a lawyer after studying philosophy at university, but decided to pause before applying to law school.

“I was kind of sick of school and needed a break so it was like, let me go work for a couple of years, travel … and then if I want, I can go back to school,” she told Patricia Bright on The Break podcast. “I never did end up going back.”