Sarah Jessica Parker’s 7 Difficult Years With Robert Downey Jr: Romance Rewind

Long before her marriage to Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker count Robert Downey Jr. as her great love — but, it is not surprising that their relationship was not an easy one. Two child stars moving in together at 18 after a few weeks of dating – what could possibly go wrong? Let’s find out…

How It Started

Aged just 18 – now 59, with birthdays 10 days apart – Parker and Downey Jr met on the set of a film as teenagers Firstborn way back in 1984. Acting since childhood and well-known faces on the Brat Pack scene of the time, things got serious quickly: they moved in together in Los Angeles after only a few weeks of dating.

How Long It Lasted

Parker was basically a saint: he stayed with Downey Jr., through his well-documented substance abuse issues, for seven whole years. While the romance included iconic 1980s outfits, great movie roles and glamorous parties, it was also seven years of heartbreak, addiction, fear and stress, with the clean living. Sex and the City star tells the New York in 2023 that the relationship made her “feel like a parent at 22.”

How it ended

The pair separated in 1991, with Parker realizing she could no longer help her charming and charismatic but very troubled lover. He moved back to New York, where he continued to date the late John F. Kennedy Jr. before settling down with Broderick a few years later, in 1997. This was around the time Downey Jr., who said he had been addicted to drugs since he was given them by his father at the age of eight, hit rock bottom. rock He ended up serving 12 months in prison after repeatedly failing court-ordered drug tests, but has now been sober since 2003 and has been married to Susan Downey since 2005.

What They Said About Each Other

Both parties are probably thankful that their relationship predated social media and the explosion of the internet in general, because we can only imagine how much discussion it would generate now, but when they were with each other, they regularly stepped out at red carpet events. . Many years after their separation – and with Downey Jr now maintaining a life of sobriety and enjoying great critical and commercial success in films such as Iron Man a Oppenheimer – she has spoken about their relationship in a number of interviews, and it is clear that it was an extremely challenging time for both of them.

What They’re Saying Now

As late as 2023, Parker opened up to the New York about the relationship of the couple that defines the age but is doomed. “The people around him would be dismissive of me, but I had given him stability and tried to create a steady heartbeat that allowed him to show up on time,” he said. “That made me angry and embarrassed me.”

In 2020, he said People that she thinks the relationship actually influenced her own upbringing (she and Broderick share twins Tabitha and Loretta and son James). “It might have taught me a bit about parenting as well, because the things I ended up caring for, and the way I cared for Downey, were things that could have been more suitable for a parent at a certain time,” he said. .

Further back, in a podcast interview in 2016, Parker revealed that she was constantly afraid that Downey Jr. would die if he left it. Speaking on “WTF with Marc Maron,” he said: “You love this person, and you’re afraid they’re going to die if you’re not there to land their center every single day. … I didn’t want him to die. The biggest, hardest choices about those kinds of relationships is feeling brave enough to leave, even if you think they’re going to die.”

Meanwhile, Downey Jr. said Parade magazine in 2008 that he had happy memories of their time together, despite everything they went through. “I liked to drink, and I had a drug problem, and that didn’t jibe with Sarah Jessica, because it’s the furthest thing from what she is,” he said. “She gave me a home and understanding. He tried to help me. It was so depressing when I didn’t get my act together. Private things aside, we were able to spend some time together and it was really cool. I was in love with Sarah Jessica, and obviously love wasn’t enough.”

Key Relationship Takeaway Shops

The former couple actually met in 2015 to end their troubled relationship – and, by all accounts, it went well.

Speaking during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in 2016, Downey Jr said: “You know, the funny thing too is that you always have a perception of someone you’ve spent a large part of your life with and I think it’s typical . .. the further you get away from that in your new life. relationship, you sub-intentionally taint your perception of the person. When I saw her I was like, ‘She’s so great and so cool and so funny and so in command’. I met her children and saw the way she and Matthew live and I respect them both very much.”

Parker also spoke to Stern about their 2016 reunion. “It was really nice. It was surprisingly not strange. Basically, we’re kind of the same,” he said. “The difference is that he has a family and a wife and obviously his career is a huge thing. But I think his true nature is completely familiar. I always felt very fond of him, I thought it ended well in a way. I never worried about his welfare and I never felt resentment or bitterness.”

Yup, despite everything they went through together, these two are now as mature and measured as it gets, with amazing careers to be proud of as well. What a trip.