Robbie's wife and her close friendship with a handsome TV producer

THE pretty young wife of actor Robbie Coltrane has formed a close friend- ship with a handsome TV director.

Rhona McMillan has turned to dashing film-maker David Council for support after walking out on her 15-year-relationship with Coltrane.

The pair have been in touch constantly since Coltrane, 53, confirmed that he had split with Rhona after just three years of marriage.

The 34-year-old sculptress has been pouring her heart out to Council, 32, who she described last night as "just a friend".

A source close to the pair said: "Rhona and David are very close to each other and it is clear she has turned to him during this difficult time.

"He's a good-looking guy - some say he's the double of Steve McQueen - and women find him very attractive.

"He's single at the moment and his friendship with Rhona has built up over several months."

The friend added: "Rhona and David have a lot in common.

"They are similar in age, share mutual friends and have a passion for the arts.

"Rhona is very lively and has a great sense of humour while David is more sensitive and quite brooding.

"He is a good listener and very loyal to his friends.

"He will have been a pillar of strength to her during the breakdown in her marriage."

David is a well-known figure on the arts scene in Scotland and is currently sharing a shabby flat with a friend just 15 minutes drive from Rhona's home in Glasgow.

He directed the award-winning black comedy Frozen Assets and was also a director of TV's Film 99 and Film 2000.

The Sunday Mirror can also reveal that Coltrane has been seeking help for heavy drinking.

The 23-stone, self-confessed binge drinker has contacted counsellors at the Priory centre in Glasgow, a 30- minute drive away from the pounds 3million home he used to share with Rhona in Dumgoyne, Stirlingshire.

He told them he was in a "in a bit of a state" and was advised to arrange a day when he could be assessed at the Priory's Roehampton clinic near London.

He then travelled to London for the filming of the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban in which he stars as gentle giant Hagrid.

But just days later Coltrane embarked on a marathon drinking session. It started after he spent the evening watching Dawn French star in the aptly-named My Brilliant Divorce at the Apollo Theatre in London.

After the play he went out drinking in the capital until the early hours.

A source said: "Coltrane has clearly been drinking to forget.

"He has told his friends how much he misses his children and how the sparkle has gone from his marriage.

"He really is a sad lonely man and is completely out of control at the moment

"He loves his kids and is desperately sad that his wife walked out on him because he is never there for them.

"It is also obvious that his difficulty in losing weight has become an issue between the two of them."

Coltrane later returned to the pounds 240- a-night Covent Garden Hotel looking dishevelled.

The next day he travelled north to spend the Easter weekend with his children Spencer, 10, and Alice, five, at the former marital home in Scotland.

Rhona took their children to meet him, but then returned alone to her pounds 250,000 flat in Glasgow's exclusive West End.

Red-headed Rhona, who is 19 years younger than her husband, moved into the flat in the middle of January after a series of rows with Coltrane.

Recently, blinds at Rhona's spacious flat have remained closed and newspaper pages have been pasted against parts of the huge bay windows not covered by the blinds.

She has been dividing her time between the family home in Dumgoyne and her flat while Coltrane is filming.

Rhona has long been credited for taming hell-raiser Coltrane who in the last few months had claimed his wild days were behind him.

"Och, my wild days. Every young man should have his wild days," he said recently.

"I called it my delayed adolescence. I'm careful now, oh yeah. I don't really go to clubs much any more and I'm in damned good shape."

During the 80s Coltrane developed a reputation as a hell-raiser who loved a drink.

He regularly went on mammoth drinking sessions and has been quick to boast about his legendary drinking ability in the past.

"Booze is my undoing. I can drink a gallon of beer and not feel the least bit drunk," he once said.

But his battle with the booze isn't the only problem to have plagued his life.

His weight has always been an issue for the former Bond baddie. It ballooned to 26 stone through drinking

In 1986 he flew to a special health clinic in Mexico in a bid to control his weight and in 1991 he revealed he'd lost a stone and a half through Weight Watchers.

The low point of his life came when the love of his life artist Robin Paine refused to marry him.

The pair had been together on and off for 15 years but, despite his many proposals, she snubbed him.

When she finally left him in 1987 Coltrane went on late-night drinking sessions to ease the pain.

It wasn't long before he met the woman who was to become his wife - Rhona Gemmell.

The pair met in a pub on Christmas Eve 1988 when Rhona was just 18.

They soon became inseparable and in 1993 their son Spencer was born.

The couple finally married in a secret, romantic ceremony near Loch Fyne in 1999.

While Rhona's passion is art, Coltrane has a well-known passion for classic cars and has often been seen down at the local mechanics in the village close to his home.

Coltrane first hit the big time through TV series Tutti Frutti and the award-winning series Cracker in which he played hard-drinking criminal psychologist Fitz.

Earlier this week Coltrane's publicist described the break-up as "amicable". And his agent added: "There is no one else involved.""

However friends blamed the break-up on Coltrane's hectic workload.

Filming for the new Harry Potter film and TV work have forced him to spend a lot of time away from home.

Last night Coltrane refused to comment and David Council was unavailable for comment.

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