For the second time this month, a high-profile Hollywood couple have revealed that not only are they separated, but have been for several years.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for Academy award-winning actress Meryl Streep confirmed she and husband Don Gummer separated — six years ago.
Streep has been married to sculptor Gummer since 1978.
Gummer has stood alongside Streep for all three of her Oscar wins including Kramer Vs Kramer in 1979 as Joanna Kramer, as the titular character in Sophie’s Choice in 1982, and as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady in 2011.
When accepting her Oscar for The Iron Lady, she mentioned Gummer saying: “First I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives, you’ve given me.”
Over the weekend, Streep accepted the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts in Spain where she appeared to be wearing a wedding band.
Why did Meryl Streep and Don Gummer separate?
We’re not sure, yet.
“Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than six years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart,” Streep’s representatives told PA News agency on Saturday.
How many children do they have?
Streep and Gummer share four children together, all of whom have gone into acting.
Eldest son and actor/musician Henry Wolf who was born in 1979.
Eldest daughter Mamie Gummer is most well known for her role on The Good Wife. She also co-starred with her mother in the 2015 film Ricki and The Flash.
Middle daughter and Mr Robot star Grace Gummer recently welcomed a child with megastar producer Mark Ronson.
And youngest daughter Lousia Jacobson who currently stars in the HBO period series The Gilded Age.
Between them they have given their parents five grandchildren.
‘Separating’ the new black for established Hollywood couples
The news of Streep and Gummer’s separation comes a week after Jada Pinkett Smith‘s tell-all interview where she confirmed her separation from actor Will Smith.
The couple married in 1997.
Their marriage came under an intense public gaze last year when Smith slapped Chris Rock after he mocked Pinkett Smith’s alopecia while presenting at the Oscars.
Pinkett Smith spilled about her and Smith’s marriage status while promoting her new memoir.
She told US television journalist Hoda Kotb that she had been separated from Smith for seven years, including during the infamous Oscars slap where Smith referred to her as “my wife”.
Pinkett Smith told Kotb she considered a legal divorce, but couldn’t go through with it.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce, we will work through whatever,” she said.
“And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
Streep and Pinkett Smith aren’t the only Hollywood couple to call it quits after a significant period together.
The couple released a statement saying they had decided to “pursue individual growth”.
“We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” they said.
“Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.
“Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness.”
The couple have two children – 23-year-old Oscar and 18-year-old Ava.
ABC/PA