Sarah Jessica Parker Talks Reconnecting With Ex Robert Downey Jr.: ‘It Was Surprisingly Not Weird’
Did you really expect Sarah Jessica Parker to say something mean about someone?
The Divorce star sat down with Howard Stern for the first time on Tuesday and was asked about recently reconnecting with her ’80s boyfriend, Robert Downey Jr. It’s no surprise — does she ever saying anything bad about anyone? — that Parker, who has been married to Matthew Broderick since 1997, said their meeting, over dinner at Chez Parker-Broderick, “was really nice.”
“It was surprisingly not weird. I guess you spend so many years with someone. We were 18 when we met,” the 51-year-old Sex and the City alum said about seeing the Iron Man star, whom she ended her “seven or eight”-year romance with in 1991 amid his issues with drug and alcohol addiction. “Fundamentally we’re sort of the same. Do you know what I mean? The difference is he has a family and a wife and obviously his career is a massive thing, but it was completely familiar.”
Parker went on to say that their breakup wasn’t a messy one, despite the circumstances.
“I always felt very affectionate toward him,” she admitted. “I thought it ended well in a way. I mean, we were young and we broke up, but I never didn’t care about his well-being. I never felt like resentment or bitterness — those old ideas about ‘my ex.’”
Though Parker noted that she had been on the bad side of a split in her life, saying, “I’ve had breakups where you don’t remain friendly. But that’s OK too.” (In the interview, she revealed that she dated Nicolas Cage.)
It was on The Howard Stern Show where this reunion was first set in motion. In April 2015, Downey was a guest and was asked about dating his fellow three-named star. He told the shock jock, “We actually had a very conservative relationship considering the fact that she was normal, and I was out of my mind. I did the best I could.”
Downey, who has two children with second wife Susan Downey, put it out there during the interview that he was looking for closure from Parker about the relationship, saying, “As opposed to just doing what’s required of me, I actually want to take care of some personal business. I wanna check in with someone I shared a big part of my life with and say, ‘Hi.’”
With Parker doing press to promote Divorce, she was also asked about Downey by People magazine. She said that their romance “taught me how I love.” She also learned, “And what’s the difference between loving and taking care of people and what’s necessary, and what grown-ups should and shouldn’t do for one another.”
She continued, “Maybe it taught me a little bit about being a parent too, because the things that I ended up caring about, and the way I cared for Downey, were things that might be more suitable for a parent at a certain point.”
