Look back at their relationship.
It seems like celebrity divorce summer has made way for another marital-related trend: secret separation fall. Earlier this month, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed that she and Will have been separated — unbeknownst to the public — since 2016 (although the pair is still legally married). The announcement sent shock waves across the internet, but the Smiths aren’t the only high-profile couple who’ve been quietly living their lives apart from one another. A few days ago, news broke that Meryl Streep and her husband Don Gummer have been separated for more than six years. Here’s what we know about Streep’s former husband and their relationship.
Why did Meryl Streep and Don Gummer separate?
On Oct. 20, Page Six reported that Streep and Gummer, who’ve been married 45 years, were separated. A spokesperson for the actress told the outlet, “Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than 6 years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart.”
The news came as a surprise to fans, considering Streep wore her wedding band at the 2023 Princesa de Asturias Awards the very same day the news of the separation broke. However, eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that Streep and Gummer hadn’t actually been at an awards show together since the 2018 Oscars.
They haven’t said why they decided to end their marriage — which isn’t exactly a surprise, considering that the couple rarely spoke publicly about their union. Streep has, however, given hints as to what she thinks makes a successful partnership over the years. In 2002, she told Vogue: “Goodwill and willingness to bend — and to shut up every once in a while.” She added, “There’s no road map on how to raise a family: It’s always an enormous negotiation. But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”
But she also made a comment to The Telegraph in 2012 that, given what we know now, is extra interesting. To be clear, she was being interviewed for her movie Hope Springs, which is about a struggling marriage. She said, “Women have their antennae up more. It is all self-preservation, they want the relationship to work.” She went on to say, “Women make a religion of relationships. They study how to make them work, while men do not, as a generalization.”
She also told The Telegraph that marriages require effort. “Even with your family and your children, you have to keep working,” she said, adding, “It doesn’t matter how old you are — we are all in danger of taking the people we love for granted.”
Who is Meryl Streep’s husband and how did they meet?
Gummer is a sculptor who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in Indiana. He received a Bachelors in Fine Arts and a Masters in Fine Arts from Yale School of Art, and his works have been featured in dozens of shows. Before meeting Streep, Gummer was previously married in the early 1970s but it didn’t last long.
Streep and Gummer met through her brother, Harry Streep III, after Streep’s boyfriend, actor John Cazale, died of lung cancer in March 1978. According to Streep’s biography, Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, the Oscar-winning actress was kicked out of the loft she and Cazale shared. Streep’s brother came to help her pack, and he brought Gummer with him. She then moved into Gummer’s loft, because he was vacationing in Pakistan. (Celebrities sublet, too — they’re just like us!) Throughout the trip, they wrote letters back and forth to each other. They got married in September 1978, just months after they met for the first time. If that seems a little fast, you’re not the only one who thought that — according to PEOPLE, Streep’s loved ones were skeptical of the relationship at first. Her friends apparently were concerned that the marriage was a rebound, and Streep’s own mother worried, “What is she thinking about?”
Streep was aware of the reactions to her quick marriage. She reportedly remarked at the time of her wedding, “I haven’t got over John’s death, but I’ve got to go on living and Don has showed me how to do that.”
Fortunately, it seems the fears about Streep and Gummer’s relationship were unfounded because the two were married for over four decades.
Do Meryl Streep and Don Gummer have children?
Streep and Gummer have four children together: Henry Wolfe, 43; Mamie Gummer, 40; Grace Gummer, 37; and Louisa Jacobson, 32. They’re also grandparents to five grandchildren — Henry and Mamie each have two children, and Grace gave birth to a daughter, Annabelle, in March of this year.
