Meryl Streep and her husband, Don Gummer, have been quietly separated for over six years.
A representative for Streep said in a statement, “While they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart.”
The couple was married in 1978 and has not been publicly seen together since the 2018 Oscars. Despite the separation, Streep has continued to wear her wedding ring.
The Oscar-winning actress and sculptor were first introduced in 1978 by Streep’s brother.
The two were married six months later in September, and welcomed their first child, Henry Wolfe, in November 1979.
Over the course of their relationship, the couple have three more children: Mamie Gummer, 40, Grace Gummer, 37, and Louisa Jacobson, 30. The two now have five grandchildren.
Streep, 74, had said in a 2002 interview with Vogue that the secret to marriage was “goodwill and willingness to bend – and to shut up every once in a while…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.”
In 2012, Streep dedicated her Best Actress Oscar to her husband.
“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,” she started her speech.
Streep is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time and is known for her performance versatility and masterful accents.
She has received numerous awards throughout her career, which has now spanned over four decades. Among her many accolades, she has been nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards, of which she won three, and a record 32 Golden Globe Awards, of which she won eight.
Gummer, 76, is an American sculptor and a major presence in the art world. While his work started off table-top sized or intended to be mounted on the wall, in the mid-1980s he began to experiment with larger free-standing works, with a special focus on bronze. He started to incorporate stained glass, aluminum and stainless steel into his art in the 1990s. As he expanded to larger outdoor works, he developed a special interest in public art.
