Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio Belong Together
Titanic gave us many things: the greatest ballad ever written; the saying "you jump, I jump," which comes with great power and responsibility. But above all else, it gave us the most important love story of our time: Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
"You're confusing the actors for their characters," you might say. But you're wrong. Jack and Rose came from the mind of a madman (James Cameron). Their union was a 48-hour fling made much more intense by nautical disaster; it was doomed by an inability to share a floating wardrobe door. But Kate and Leo? That shit’s for real. Their friendship spans decades. For 21 years they’ve been best friends and red carpet partners. They're a slow-burning, real-life version of When Harry Met Sally tailored specifically to my romantic needs. So it’s about time they got on with it.
Which I understand is easier said than done. Kate is currently married to Ned RocknRoll and Leo is currently linked to any supermodel who graduated high-school in 2015. Kate is raising three children and Leo still rolls with members of the Pussy Posse. He also wears wears cargo shorts and newsboy caps, and if that isn’t a reason to excommunicate somebody from your life forever, I’m not sure what is. But here we are, fully aware that Kate stands by Leo despite his sartorial missteps, fully aware that they still "quote the odd Titanic line" to one another - and yet expected to accept that they're just friends.
"[Fans] sort of wish there was like a soap opera version of the story, where Jack and Rose really did get together," Kate said in September. "But no." The following month, she claimed they never "fancied" each other. Hmm. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Perhaps she was aware of the splash she and Leo made over the summer, when they reunited poolside in St. Tropez at Leo’s villa, reminding us all how beautiful the combination of "Leo plus Kate plus water" really is. Sure, his other friends were present. And true, they were in town to support the environmental efforts of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (which raised $30 million, by the way). But, as always, you got the sense that Leo was treating Kate as an equal, not as a conquest. Which is meaningful, given his penchant for burning through Victoria's Secret models.
Leo and Kate have consistently shown up for each other when it counts, like when Leo walked her down the aisle at her 2012 wedding to Ned RocknRoll, even though that must have killed him inside. Or when Kate refused to boycott the 2016 Oscars because she thought it would be "Leo’s year." (That wasn't the most socially conscious choice, but she was right in that he won best actor.) "He is my closest friend in the world and I just couldn’t imagine not being there to support him,” she said.
They’ve been through more together than we’ll ever know. They’ve endured the filming of Titanic and the frenzy that followed. They braved lines like "I’m flying! Jack!" without laughing or wondering who in the world would ever say that and why. They had to sleep at night knowing James Cameron’s hands were the ones shown drawing Rose’s nude body, and then sleep again knowing we'd all one day find that out. They had to pretend only one of them could fit on that wardrobe door.
Kate and Leo’s love story is like that of our strange, famous, disconnected-from-reality parents. We’ve seen them on-screen and off, formally dressed and wearing too-low swimming trunks. We’ve watched them laugh and watched them cry, watched them hug and watched them gaze adoringly at one another. The only thing we haven’t watched is their first public appearance as a couple in love. But the time has come. Ned RocknRoll will just have to understand.
Titanic turns 20 on December 19. Read more anniversary articles here.
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