In 1971, while appearing in The Rivals at the Chichester Festival, she met the actor Edward Fox, and the two became a couple. Eleven years her senior, Fox came from a theatrical family—his father had been an actors’ agent, his mother (an “extraordinary matriarch,” says David) was the illegitimate daughter of the playwright Frederic Lonsdale, his younger brother James was already a film star and his youngest brother, Robert, a producer. The Fox family embraced her, and she and Edward have lived together ever since. They have two children—Emilia, born in 1974, and Frederick, born 1989.
With Fox, David found the stability that had been lacking in her childhood. Nonetheless, the relationship has not been without its difficulties. Although David wanted to marry him, Fox refused for many years. (She got some of her own back, however, by legally changing her name to Fox.) He has also spoken publicly about having affairs. “In relationships, everyone has to compromise,” David told an interviewer in 2001. “'We've grown up together over 30 years, and have an immense amount of understanding for each other. We are both independent, and like our own space. We never wanted to merge into one. But a long relationship is not easy, it's bloody hard work—a lot of it is uphill and down the other side, and you find out how good a climber you are.” But in October 2004, the couple were finally married.