Whatever Happened To Touched By An Angel's Roma Downey?

Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. Her talent for acting led her to study at Drama Studio London before joining Dublin-based Abbey Players, and the drama troupe later travelled to America for a tour. Soon enough, she was performing in Broadway productions in New York City.

After making her first screen appearance on One Life to Live in 1988, Downey caught her big break when she was cast as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the 1991 TV miniseries A Woman Named Jackie. More TV roles followed, ranging from guest-starring appearances on various series to more made-for-TV movies. In 1994, Downey found a role that dovetailed perfectly with her profession as an actor and her deeply held spiritual beliefs, Touched by an Angel, and it would go on to change her life forever.

Touched by an Angel's message of hope and redemption resonated with viewers, and the show enjoyed a successful nine-season run until ending in 2003. Since then, Downey's career has blossomed in some unexpected new areas. Read on to find out what this actress has been up to since her hit series left the air.

Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey and Della Reese weren't just co-stars, but they also grew to become close personal friends, developing a relationship that extended beyond the life of the show. Reese, in fact, was godmother to Downey's daughter, Reilly Marie, as noted by E! News.

In a 2015 interview with CBN News, Downey revealed that having Reese in her life was nothing short of an answered prayer. "My mother had died when I was 10 years of age, and, you know, my whole life I was looking for that mother figure, that nurturing figure," she explained. She added, "And I had a prayer as a young girl that somehow someone would come into my life and fill that role." Della Reese did just that.

When Reese passed away in 2017, Downey shared a touching tribute on Instagram, posting a clip of one of her most loved scenes from their show. In the caption, she recalled "Della taking me into the warmth of her embrace" while filming. She noted, "To be in her arms was to feel love. I know Della has gone home to the peace of Heaven, but I'm going to miss her."

By the end of Touched by an Angel's run, Roma Downey had been divorced twice, ending her marriage to actor Leland Orser and later splitting with producer David Anspaugh. In an interview with Associated Press, Downey revealed that her "friend, mother, and mentor" Della Reese encouraged her to pray that the Almighty would lead her to her soulmate. "Let that be your prayer, that God will choose your husband for you," Downey recalled Reese telling her.

In 2004, according to HuffPost, Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey was in a nail salon having a mani-pedi when she saw a man in the shop having a haircut. Admitting that "he got my ... emotional attention," she asked who he was when she was paying her bill. "It's funny you should ask me," the receptionist told her, "because he just asked who you were." That man was Mark Burnett, executive producer of such reality TV hits as Survivor, The Voice, and The Apprentice — and her future husband. 

As Downey explained, "Little did we know when we first met and we fell in love that we would literally join forces to create so much together."

From her experience with Touched by an Angel, Roma Downey realized there was a hunger for TV series and films with a spiritual element, entertainment that could elevate and inspire, but she believed Hollywood simply wasn't making enough of them. Downey set out to change that in 2009, when she and husband Mark Burnett founded LightWorkers Media with a goal of creating "engaging, uplifting and inspirational content that breaks through the clutter."

With Downey as president, LightWorkers quickly became a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. In 2014, Multichannel News reported that media conglomerate MGM purchased a 55 percent stake in both LightWorkers and Burnett's One Three Media, consolidating the two companies into a new entertainment brand called United Artists Media Group. Burnett was appointed CEO of the new company, while Downey remained president of LightWorkers, which became "the faith and family division" of this new entity. 

"We see this as such an underserved market," Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey told the Los Angeles Times. "There's a great hunger and need and a community for this... We need to be a respite and be a reminder of what's possible."

Given the unprecedented success of The Bible, Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey and husband Mark Burnett quickly went to work on a sequel to the mega-hit miniseries, but there was one big obstacle to overcome: The actual Bible doesn't have a sequel, so where to turn for source material?

As Downey told The Hollywood Reporter, the miniseries would follow the spread of Christianity after the crucifixion. "With A.D. The Bible Continues, we have been able to use the death of Jesus as the starting point because really it's the journey of what happens next," Downey said. "It was a moment that changed the world — it changed world history. ... It had resounding impact."

A.D. The Bible Continues premiered on Easter Sunday 2015, this time airing on a broadcast network, NBC. Ratings for A.D. weren't as high as they were for The Bible, but by no means were they low. As Deadline reported, the first episode brought in a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demo and 9.5 million total viewers.

Roma Downey and husband Mark Burnett quickly became one of Hollywood's most-renowned power couples, having been listed among Variety's "most influential" people in Hollywood in 2013. In 2016, the duo announced another new entertainment venture: Light TV, described by Associated Press as a new broadcast network featuring "wholesome family and faith-based" programming. Thanks to their deal with MGM, the network would also be able to draw on MGM-owned film and TV properties that would fit with the network's theme, including such movies as Rocky and TV shows like Highway to Heaven and Fame.

The network launched in December 2016, with Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey confident that Light TV would serve an audience that was hungry for inspirational, faith-based television programming. "This is the last unclaimed vertical," she said in the announcement, as reported by Deadline. "As we have already seen from the success of The Bible series and our 20 million social followers this audience is looking for inspiring and uplifting programming that they can watch in a trusted and safe environment on any platform."

During the first season of Touched by an Angel, Roma Downey was approached by Dr. Bill Magee, a plastic surgeon who founded Operation Smile. Through the organization, he and other doctors travelled throughout the world to perform pro bono surgery on disadvantaged children to repair their cleft palates. At the time, Downey told Ability Magazine that Magee asked the show if it was possible to create an episode around the work they were doing. 

When Touched by an Angel ended, Downey explained, she had maintained a relationship with Magee, and was asked to sit on Operation Smile's board of governors. This led to a role as ambassador and spokesperson, which offered the opportunity for Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey to travel on some of Operation Smile's missions. As she told Ability Magazine, one of those trips brought her to south Vietnam, where she was "actively participating" with children in a hospital. "Next to the birth of my own child, it was the most moving experience of my life," she said. "I had forgotten that it's in giving that you truly receive. I went there thinking I was doing them a favor, but truth be told, I came back feeling richer and fuller."

Touched by an Angel's Roma Downey found herself in the midst of some bizarre headlines in 2018, after her husband, Mark Burnett, got into an alleged physical altercation with comedian Tom Arnold during a party after the 2018 Emmy Awards. It all stemmed from Arnold's TV show The Hunt for the Trump Tapes, in which he sought outtakes from the Burnett-produced reality show The Apprentice featuring then-future president Donald Trump allegedly uttering all manner of offensive remarks. Despite Arnold's requests, Burnett refused to turn over any footage.

After the incident, Arnold tweeted that Burnett "went apes**t" and "choked" him. Downey, however, claimed the opposite, painting Arnold as the aggressor when she tweeted a photo of a big bruise on her hand, seemingly implying it was inflicted when Arnold tried to "ambush" her husband. According to CNN, Arnold filed a police report against Burnett, alleging battery; Deadline later reported that the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office dropped the case, citing "insufficient evidence."

Among the witnesses was How I Met Your Mother's Alyson Hannigan, who tweeted that she saw Burnett and Arnold "get into a fight." She noted, "Thought it was a joke until security jumped in!"