Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender pack on the PDA in rare appearance after quietly welcoming second child

Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender made a rare and seriously loved-up appearance together at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday night.

The notoriously private couple walked hand-in-hand along the red carpet for the premiere of Alicia’s new film, The Echo Chamber, and couldn’t keep their eyes off each other as they posed for photographers.

At one point, Michael, 49, wrapped an arm around his wife before the couple shared a kiss in front of the cameras, making the outing an unusually public display of affection for the pair, who have largely kept their marriage and two children away from the spotlight.

Alicia, 37, looked stunning in an ethereal pale blue Louis Vuitton creation featuring a strapless silk bustier and a dramatic ruffled skirt.

The sweeping design featured layers of delicate fabric, an oversized draped bow at the waist and a flowing train, while a shorter hem at the front revealed her matching strappy heels. She completed the look with sparkling statement earrings and a large diamond ring. Her brunette hair was worn loose and sleek behind her shoulders. 

Michael looked equally dapper in a double-breasted black tuxedo, crisp white shirt and bow tie, adding dark sunglasses as he smiled alongside his wife.

The couple also joined Alicia’s The Echo Chamber co-stars Susan Sarandon and Luca Marinelli, along with director Andrea Pallaoro, on the red carpet.

Alicia Vikander’s rare comments about Michael Fassbender

The appearance comes just days after Alicia made unusually candid comments about the secret to her enduring marriage.

Speaking to Vanity Fair ahead of Venice, the Oscar-winning actress explained that she doesn’t believe love should involve constantly chasing another person.

“If you choose to be with someone, there doesn’t have to be drama,” she said, revealing that with Michael, “it was like that from the beginning.”

It is a rare insight into a relationship the pair have fiercely protected for more than a decade.

Alicia previously explained their attitude towards privacy after they married, telling Vogue: “It’s not about being secretive. It’s just about choosing the few things that you keep private.”

She did, however, reveal just how content married life had made her. “I feel I’m more happy and content than I’ve ever been,” she said in 2018, adding: “The happy-and-content thing, that’s talking about my private life.”

How Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender fell in love

There is something particularly fitting about Alicia and Michael returning to Venice together. The actors met in 2013 before falling in love while filming Derek Cianfrance’s romantic drama The Light Between Oceans in 2014. The movie would later bring them to the Venice Film Festival together for its world premiere in 2016.

Their relationship developed away from the cameras, however, and the couple eventually married in an intimate ceremony in Ibiza in October 2017. They subsequently made Lisbon, Portugal, their home, preferring a quieter European lifestyle to living permanently in Hollywood.

Alicia has previously described the joy of their adopted home, particularly since becoming parents. “We used to meet people at the pub on Sundays here,” she told The Guardian of her former London life. “Then in Lisbon, it was pretty wild sitting on a Sunday at a beach club in February. It was like: ‘Oh, look, we’re doing the same thing, but it looks a bit different.’ Especially with kids.”

Alicia and Michael’s two children

Alicia and Michael welcomed their first son in 2021 and quietly became parents for a second time in 2024. The couple have deliberately kept their children out of the public eye.

Alicia’s journey to motherhood wasn’t straightforward. “I tried to get pregnant for a while,” she previously told Harper’s Bazaar UK, revealing that she experienced a miscarriage and fertility struggles before welcoming her first child. “I had tough times during lockdown. I struggled for a while.”

When their first baby finally arrived, Alicia described the experience as transformative. “I now have a whole new understanding of life in general,” she said. “That’s pretty beautiful and obviously will give a lot to any of my work in the future.”

The arrival of their second child was similarly private. Alicia never formally announced her pregnancy and later appeared amused by reports that she had somehow kept it “secret.”

“I’ve always been very private, in the sense that I don’t talk a lot about my family,” she told The Guardian. “I mean, I didn’t make an announcement.”

Alicia Vikander on welcoming her second baby

Alicia has nevertheless spoken candidly about the physical demands of becoming a mother for the second time. “All women have such different experiences, and going through it a second time was definitely harder for me,” she told ELLE UK.

“Going through those nine months is like a marathon, so it does help if you’re strong going into it. It’s so physically demanding, and I have so much admiration for any woman who has done it.”

Motherhood has also changed how Alicia sees herself. “I love being a mum,” she told British Vogue last year. “I was terrified of what it is, going into it. I wasn’t really very maternal until I had my own children.”

She added that welcoming her second child brought a newfound confidence: “I started to feel like, ‘OK, I know this a little bit now.’ I’m a bit kinder to myself too.”

How Alicia and Michael make family life work

Two successful acting careers inevitably create logistical challenges, but Alicia and Michael established one important family rule after becoming parents. “We do jobs so one of us can always be with the baby,” Alicia explained after welcoming their first son.

That arrangement has continued as their family has grown. Alicia admitted last year that she still struggles with “mum guilt”, particularly when filming means leaving home before her children wake up and returning after they’ve gone to sleep.

“Knowing that one parent is always home…” she told British Vogue, before admitting: “With all the parent and mum guilt that you already carry with you constantly, I am battling that a lot, all the time.”