The movie The Last Letter from Your Lover, starring Felicity Jones, Callum Turner, and Shailene Woodley, was released on Netflix in select territories on July 23, 2021.

The film is set in London across two different time periods: the 1960s and the present day. The story centers around present-day journalist Ellie Haworth (Jones), who finds a trove of love letters from the 1960s.

Interested in solving the secret love affair, she sets out to find the persons behind those letters, who happen to be Jennifer Stirling (Woodley) and Anthony O’Hare (Turne).

The British romantic drama received rave reviews upon its release, with Forbes' Sheena Scott describing the film as "an enduring love story."

And while the film was written by Nick Payne and Esta Spalding, directed by Augustine Frizzell, and is based on JoJo Moyes' 2012 book of the same name, many viewers are googling queries like "Is The Last Letter From Your Lover based on a true story?" wondering whether the story has some real-life inspiration.

Author Moyes on Its Real-Life Inspiration

Speaking with Pop Culture in August 2021, the popular English author shared how she initially came up with the idea of the story.

"It was me being nosy, actually," she said, admitting the idea for The Last Letter from Your Lover came from a real incident she observed in a bar.

She recalled eavesdropping on a bunch of women in a bar trying to resolve a text message from a guy. But those women could not work out what the guy meant, as his note read, "later x."

"And it just got me thinking how the old days, like my grandmother's age, if somebody wrote you a letter you were pretty clear what they thought about you, you know, nobody sits down and puts pen to paper unless they mean something," Moyes added.

Afterward, the author started to explore many forms of communication through the years and eventually wrote the story of The Last Letter from Your Lover.

Director’s Connect with the Film

While author Moyes had her real-life inspiration behind the story, the film's director Frizzell felt a sense of connection with it, too.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director remembered reading the script for the first time and expressing her excitement [crying] about the story with her producer.

"It was exactly what I wanted and it's very similar to my own story," she told the publication.

She further revealed how she connected with the story, narrating her own love story with her husband. She said she and her husband David Lowery, a fellow filmmaker, first met in 2001, but the two went their separate ways after dating briefly.

The couple reconnected for dinner in Dallas one night after eight years and subsequently remained in contact despite living in different cities. They sent songs and emails to each other before they finally met in person and confessed their love.

"A year later we got married," Frizzell revealed.

'The Last Letter from Your Lover': Extended Cast and Release Date

In addition to Jones, Turner, and Woodley, The Last Letter from Your Lover also starred Ben Cross as older Anthony O'Hare, Joe Alwyn as Laurence Stirling, Nabhaan Rizwan as Rory McCallan, Diana Kent as older Jennifer Stirling, and Ncuti Gatwa as Nick.

After its initial Netflix release on July 23, 2021, the film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 6, 2021.