Kate Winslet & husband Sam Mendes call it quits after 7 years

66th Annual Golden Globes

Oh, snap! Here’s a split I didn’t see coming. Us Weekly has confirmation that Oscar winners Kate Winslet & Sam Mendes are calling it quits. They were married in 2003, and they have one child together, son Joe, who is 6 years old. Kate also has a daughter with her first husband, daughter Mia, who is 9. Mendes won the Best Director Oscar for his first feature film, American Beauty, in 2000. Kate won her first Oscar last year, for her performance in The Reader.

Kate Winslet has split from her husband, film director Sam Mendes.

In a statement, London-based Schillings law firm tells UsMagazine.com: “Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children. They ask that the media respect the privacy of the family.”

Winslet wed Mendes in 2003. They have a son Joe, 6.

She was previously wed to Jim Threapleton, with whom she has a daughter, Mia, 9.

[From Us Weekly]

This is sad. I thought they were a really solid, grounded couple. Although, now that we can look back, maybe there were signs that they were having problems? Kate is in the middle of taking some time off from Hollywood to focus on her family. And Kate has always been pretty honest about her struggles as a working mother, and the time away from her husband and kids while she’s working. As far as Sam goes, I really don’t know that much about him. Is he capable of cheating on Kate? Maybe. Is she capable of cheating on him? Maybe. We’ll see if there are any more scandals with this couple yet to come.

Oh my God, do you think she and Leonardo will finally find their way to each other?!?

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78 Responses to “Kate Winslet & husband Sam Mendes call it quits after 7 years”

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  1. ,,,, says:

    Kaiser – that’s exactly what I thought. Now it’s time for her and Leo to get together and never let go…

  2. ogechi says:

    Nooooooooooooo! Pls tell me its not true!

  3. alex says:

    hmmmmm didn’t she left her first husband for this one

  4. bite me says:

    Sorry Leo only dates models, Winslet is such a pretentious twit… didn’t she leave her first husband for Sam…cant stand her

  5. LOVE ANGELINA says:

    Wow. Its like once the woman wins an Oscar the guy is gone. Its like Reese and Ryan, Hilary and whats his face Lowe all over again. D=

  6. Kaiser says:

    Love Angelina – Oh, I forgot that! Yes, it’s the Best Actress Curse! I can’t believe it struck La Winslet. And it just struck Charlize Theron too, although hers took longer.

    Sandra Bullock better keep her eye on her man.

  7. JM says:

    Maybe she just got tired of looking at that nasty beard.

  8. meme says:

    somehow i don’t think charlize’s winning an oscar for a movie she made 7 years ago has anything to do with her split from townsend. i think it did mess up her career since other than North Country she hasn’t made any good movies.

  9. lucy2 says:

    Aw, this makes me sad. I really like her and they seemed happy together, very private. I don’t remember if she left her first husband for him or not. It was a couple of years before she married again though, I think.

    As for the best actress curse, that seems more for 2 actors together. Sam has been quite successful on his own.

  10. DoMaJoReMc says:

    “Oh my God, do you think she and Leonardo will finally find their way to each other?!?”

    That was my EXACT first thought, right after a sad, “Oh, No!”

  11. alex says:

    Kaiser, I think that Sandy and Jesse are safe for that curse lol

  12. N.D. says:

    And Halle Berry and Julia Roberts too.
    Sandra’s better to watch out now.

    And I don’t think Kate left her first husband for Mendes, at least there were 2 years between her divorce and her seccond wedding.

  13. Anna says:

    Aw man, this is so sad!

    But while I also think Kate and Leo would be cute together (heck, they’d be so golden they’d rival Brad and Angelina!), Leo is pretty notorious for only dating models. I think Kate might be too grounded and independent for him. Going from bimbos to Kate thus seems quite an unlikely move for Leo.

  14. dude says:

    This breaks my freakin heart! WTF??!!

  15. alex says:

    Hey didn’t her husband directed her in that movie that she won for best actress. Well I guess she got her oscar so she don’t need him anymore.

    It is amazing how some people on blogsites act like they know these people personally and what is going on in their private lives. We don’t know anything about these people and their lives, so stop acting like some of you all do

  16. Gwen says:

    I did not see this coming. I thought about her and Leo too, but who knows. I wonder if she’ll move back to Britain now (does she live there or in NY?). It must be hard with one father in the UK and one in the US.

  17. dude says:

    Also, I dont think Kate is Leo’s type. She is a real woman with children at that. He likes younger girls w/ little brain usage!

  18. alex says:

    Leo is into models, so stop the dream

  19. Wow says:

    Love her as an actress, but this doesn’t surprise me. Isn’t this like her third husband?

  20. LolaBella says:

    Sad to hear about this, but wouldn’t it be interesting if she and Leo got together, settled down and had a bunch of kids?

  21. bellaluna says:

    Nope. Leo only dates young models, and she’s too old to be his “type.” I’m bummed by this news.

  22. Katalina76 says:

    I too immediately thought that now her and Leo could finally get together. And as far as him only dating models, we all see how well that seems to be working out for him.
    Also, doesn’t she still wear some ring Leo gave her all the time? And maybe it’s just me, but every time those two are together, the chemistry is undeniable. Remember that interview they did together?

  23. bros says:

    meh, she is phony baloney. I am not enamored with her.

  24. viper says:

    HAHA!! Great insitution of marriage my ass. Give gay the liberty to be as miserable as everybody else I say. Because straight people make such a farce out of it.

  25. Alexis says:

    If Bar dumps Leo for being a non-Jew, and then Kate and Leo got together… Every girl who was a teen in the 90s (myseld included) will swoon!

  26. Sumodo1 says:

    Good, Sam Mendes deserves better than the twat who gushed over Leo from the Oscar podium, instead of gushing over him. OK, Sam, come and get me!

  27. sassenach says:

    Not sure why people are surprised. Sam was in a committed relationship with Rachel Weisz and Kate was married with a young child when they began their affair. I think it is more than possible that one or both were cheating again.

  28. Kim says:

    So the tabloids claim Brad and Angie are splitting every week or Tom and Katie yet they miss this. I’m surprised the British tabloids miss this

  29. KsGirl says:

    They’re both pretentious twits, imo. Now they’ll both be out in the world, inflicting their pretentious twitdom on innocent bystanders! Nooooooo!

    (I’m being tongue-in-cheek but there’s a grain of real belief in what I say)

  30. nnn says:

    It’s sad but that just shows that nobody knows what is happening behind closed doors and that celebrities who are not media hunted may have problems without anyone ever noticing it cause they are never the focus.

    And reversely it’s not because they are not the focus that they don’t have problems and that everything is rosy.

    Divorce being the ultimate decision a couple will make, you must have had deep problems for a a very long time before considering it after trying to solve those problems.

  31. sasha says:

    There was a blind (CDaN?) last year about a couple on the skids which was either Beckinsale or Winslet. Personally, I thought both marriages were for the chop.

    Maybe it’s not the Curse of Oscar, but the fact that they have to stay together so as not to garner bad publicity and endanger votes? That’s always been my impression.

  32. gloaming says:

    He’s supposed to me a major flirt with wandering hands, a real sleazebag, I was baffled when I found out Rachel Weisz dated him before Kate.

    I know someone who worked with Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse who can verify my sleazebag comment.

    I would have sympathy for Kate were it not for my intense dislike of her, for various reasons……..I remember her interviews from the time she chucked her cameraman husband to shack up with a director. She was a nasty b*tch about him in the press.

  33. lin234 says:

    Really? He dumped and cheated on Rachel Weisz for her?? He should have been thanking his lucky stars for a chance at Weisz. They are both despicable for cheating on their respective partners. (Never knew that)

    I haven’t liked her holier than thou act for some time now. Let’s not forget how fast she conformed to the hollywood standard: losing a ton of weight while pretending it just magically came off.

    I doubt Leonardo wants a woman with two kids, from different daddies no less. Even without the supermodel factor, his standards are higher than that.

  34. GatsbyGal says:

    Apparently Leo and Kate are, like, best friends. Which makes me very happy and hopeful that they’ll hook up. I always thought Kate was too wonderful for this Sam Mendes guy.

  35. lucy2 says:

    @alex – I think Kate won for The Reader. Sam directed her and Leo in Revolutionary Road, which I thought she was even better in than in the Reader.

  36. nikki says:

    sasha: it’s true but CDAN revealed Beckinsale/Wiseman.
    i believe Winslet/Mendes are the good guess from NY Post BI(10/11/2009)

  37. N.D. says:

    >>Sam was in a committed relationship with Rachel Weisz and Kate was married with a young child when they began their affair.

    That’s not true. He split from Rachel in March of 2001, She divorced her husband in September of the same year.
    Here is the link http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0051341/

  38. sassenach says:

    It is true that that were involved with each other at the same time. It does not mater when the divorce went through because they were rumored to have started up in late 2000. Her husband and Sam were friends and I specifically remember all of the gossip about it at the time and didn’t know why it wasn’t more widely circulated. She should thank her lucky stars that there wasn’t as many gossip blogs then as it is now.

  39. sasha says:

    Thank you nikki!

    But I was always figuring that these two wouldn’t last, she seems flighty. Though reading this thread, he doesn’t seem such a catch either.

  40. N.D. says:

    In late 2000 she was pregnant with her daughter! Sam and Kate met in August 2001 when they got together to discuss a theatre project. it’s a well documented fact ( http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20137615,00.html ) Stop spreading lies.

  41. RobN says:

    Let’s not forget the boyfriend she dumped while he was dying of brain cancer. She works hard to appear to be a class act, but I’ve always wondered about somebody who bails on a longterm boyfriend while he’s dying. Seems a tad bit cold.

  42. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz says:

    Surprised by this! I’m not keen on Winslet, and I’m not sure why. Terrific actress no doubt but there’s something about her offscreen personality that rubs me the wrong way.

    Also, I don’t get the fawning over her and Leo. Have never seen any romantic chemistry between them. And can you imagine Leo hooking up with a woman who has KIDS??? He’s just a big kid himself.

  43. filthycute says:

    Kate is the ‘Seven Year B*tch’.

  44. nnn says:

    #38

    I rememberred too !

    Actually at the time, the brittish press went very hard against Kate saying that she had an affair and left Jim for Mendes. She was called names left and right in the UK. I remembered a story where they were describing her as a very ambitious cold woman who let her young man babysitting the baby while she was having an affair with Sam in New-York. I remembered that clearly.

    Jim was perceived as the whole nice guy who was dumped by kate because he didn’t fit her ambition unlike Sam. That’s how she was portrayed in the UK at that time.

    It was also reported that Kate and her new man decided to live more in New York to defuse the craziness of the UK press and because the US press wasn’t into that triangle, because Sam and her kept a low profile, it went under the radar very quickly afterwards.

  45. canadianchick says:

    Awww bummer, they seemed like a good fit. Yeah I wondered how Sam felt about her gushing over Leo in Oscar 2009, I recall clearly the look of emotion Leo sent her. But friends are a long way off from partners, I also think Leo wouldn’t ditch a model for a x2 divorcee with stretch marks. I hope Sam and Kate’s kids will get treated well though the parents couldn’t make it work. I like Kate but am also a big Rachel Weisz fan, loved her in Constant Gardener.

  46. BtR says:

    Over at Blind Gossip (http://blindgossip.com/?p=16542) there was speculation about the couple faking togetherness at the Oscars. Mystery solved!

  47. KsGirl says:

    Gloaming – I know a few people who have worked with Mendes and they say the same thing – pretentious, sleazy, overly convinced of his own genius. He sounds icky.

  48. nycmom10024 says:

    BtR but the blind in Bg said each went seperate eays after the event with their boyfriends. I don’t see Mendes as gay, but I guess you never know…

  49. Iggles says:

    Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    I’m heartbroken. (And it’s not even my relationship ending..)

    I liked them together. I love Kate, think she’s awesome. Her and Sam seemed like a nice pair. They were adorable in when talking about their movie “Revolutionary Road”.

  50. mslewis says:

    BtR, I guessed Kate and Mendes when that blind item came out. Everybody else guessed the usual, Sarah Jessica and Matt. But just seeing the video of both couples you could tell which was on the rocks. This breakup doesn’t surprise me at all. Also, I was a fan of Winslet when she did “Titanic” but gave up on her when she started doing so many ridiculous films and her interviews started sounding so artsy fartsy. Don’t count on Leo to ease her pain. He’s too busy with his harem of young, pretty chicky babes!!

  51. anon says:

    aw sad! i really like kate winslet. if only her and leo were going to get together. sadly i think that’s just a fangirl dream

  52. N.D. says:

    Just because british press said so doesn’t mean it’s true, remember Brangelina split disaster?

    Sam and Kate met in August 2001 and she annonced her separation from her husband on September, 4th. By that time she and Jim have already moved out of their mutual home. (Here is the link for the Sun article from September, 5th). Her marriage was already dead and in process of being buried by the time she met Sam.

    While Sam separated from Rachel Weisz a few months before he even met Kate.

  53. gloaming says:

    @Robyn- I completely forgot about that!

    Didn’t she initially give the impression she was with him on his death bed etc? Then the poor guy’s family went public with the truth, that she’d actually dumped him a few months before he died…

  54. Mistral says:

    Another marriage bites the dust. Sad.

  55. Camille says:

    Whoah! So didn’t see this one coming. Mind you this is her second marriage.

  56. cara says:

    I thought the same her and Leo together..that would be so awesome.I saw Revolutionary Road this weekend and thought they were brilliant in it.

  57. shell says:

    Oh, this is SO SAD. I’m such a huge fan of hers–she was A_mazing in The Reader.

    Oh well. I wish her the best through this difficult time.

  58. dovesgate says:

    Look at those pictures. She looks so into him in each one.

    I, for one, will be glad if we never hear what happened though. It’s hard to look at actors and actresses onscreen and believe in the characters they play once too much of their real lives have been splashed about.

  59. BReed says:

    How SAD…..thought they made the MOST attractive couple and were genuinely in love. Guess nothing stays the same anymore…….have a great evening, dear reader.

  60. seren says:

    She split up with Stephen Tedre a good couple of years before he died. He was in remission at the time. Also worth pointing out that he hooked up with her when she was 15 and he was 26, though she goes on about how they “kept it legal”, which means 16 in Britain. So their splitting up when she was what, 19, hardly makes her a bitch. Just a kid who grew up. She always spoke really positively about him, and skipped out on the Hollywood premier of Titanic to go to his funeral.

    Not so convinced that she didn’t cheat on her first husband, though, and I think she is probably a royal PITA these days. Take a plain, awkward, talented but cripplingly insecure teenager and fling years of endless sycophancy at them, and you’ll end up with a bottomless pit of egomania. The classic moment was an interview by phone where you could hear her prompting her very tiny kids in a whisper to say how much she rocked. Not attractive behavior.

  61. Yay, hope for Jack and Rose. Haha. Kidding. I loved Kate and Sam together. They seemed really together for the long haul.

  62. Rosanna says:

    Hmmm maybe I’m not the only one being soooo tired of Mrs I-Know-It-All after all LOL

  63. brenda says:

    I don’t like her. I just feel like she takes her clothes off in every movie. I understand sometimes the script asks for it, but do you have to do it in every movie?
    And I think Leo is too good for her. He should have a hot, young model. Why should he have a woman who has been divorced twice with 2 children from 2 different fathers?

  64. ViktoryGin says:

    Damn…this industry is really hopeless.

  65. Solveig says:

    I can’t say that I am surprised, not because I expected this to happen but because they are so private people that I almost forgot that they were ever married.
    Well, probably they have their good reasons (don’t believe it’s cheating) and I’m quite sure that they’ll do the best they can to protect their children from suffering.

  66. Blythe says:

    I don’t care for the misogynistic views of some posters on this site.

    Anyhoo, I would guess that her first husband had issues with her success. It’s such a common scenario and it ends up destroying the relationship, most often. He may have been very passive agressive and destructive.

    As for Sam, perhaps Kate is someone who doesn’t want to settle for unhappiness in a relationship. Most couples who last long-term are those that have a high tolerance for putting up with things they dislike.

    Maybe Kate just wants to live life on her terms. More power to her.

  67. Erika says:

    Oh, poor Kate. She’s such a badass, I’m sure everything will work out. I doubt she’ll get with Leo; they’ve been buddies for over a decade, & they seem more like bro/sis than potential lovers.

    BTW, How can you like Leo (who is an alcoholic and a womanizer – don’t get me wrong, he’s a great actor, but he’s not the best guy) and NOT like Kate Winslet, who is a phenomenal actress, a good mom, and has managed to keep all of the details about her relationships out of the press? Kate’s British and many of her films are quirky/weird, but how does any of that make her “elitist?” Or was it … “artsy fartsy.” Seriously, do you like your actresses talentless, shallow and stupid?

  68. J says:

    Many actresses (especially French ones, Sophie Marceau, Juiliette Binoche…) have different kids with different husbands. And they just got more and more popular as they grow old.

    They are beautiful intelligent women, and men are after beautiful intelligent women. Period.

    If Emma Thompson gets divorced now, any man is more than happy (and honored) to marry her.

    Big loss for Mr Mendes.

  69. Ally says:

    This is good news. Speaking of the douche meter earlier with Schwimmer, Sam Mendes always rang high alert on it, too.

    His dopey face + the holier-than-thou supposed-intellectual “Brit-looking-down-on-Americans” but at the same time “please-love-me-America!” content/tone of his decreasingly interesting movies.

    I would blame the slow and steady dive of his career for the break-up. A case of the Ryan Philippes, you might say. I’m sure he’ll find some younger starlet to adore him with freshly non-judgemental eyes.

  70. ogechi says:

    Ditto @dude

  71. cedar falls says:

    Wow, the knives are really out for this girl, huh? It just goes to show you can’t win – if you try and make serious films you’re “elitist” and “artsy-fartsy”, if you go commercial you’re a talentless bimbo riding on your looks!

    Kate’s a great actress who’s picky about her projects and keeps her private life (generally) private – a refreshing change from the media wh*res churning out dross for the paycheck.

  72. chikkentikkatellmewhatswrong says:

    @VictoryGin –

    My thoughts exactly!

  73. malina says:

    noo, leo got drowned after titanic split, remember? 😉

  74. bellaluna says:

    @ CanadianChick – if you liked Rachel in Constant Gardener, check her out her with Hugh Jackman (yum!) in The Fountain. Get the DVD, because it’s a brain twister, and you’ll need to watch it more than once.

    Did you know they re-did some scenes in Constant Gardner to include her real-life pregnancy in the story line?

  75. Alarmjaguar says:

    Wow, who the hell cares if she has two kids by two different men. Lots of people (men and women) are in the same situation. That doesn’t make her the washed up sl*t people are making her out to be. Also, I can’t believe that folks are saying that a man will choose a model b/c she looks better over someone whose company he actually enjoys (note: have no idea what the real situation is and don’t care, but I’m shocked by these comments — it reminds me of the thread about whether you’d rather have a perfect body or have great sex and most people chose beautiful. Why are we so obsessed with appearance over substance?

  76. Zelda says:

    Why the hell do so many people like Titanic?
    Has no one figured out how God-Awful that movie is? Not even in a decade?!

  77. snapdragon says:

    to the people who are appalled that kate has 2 children from 2 husbands: WTF? how does that make her a slut or low class? jesus, i’ll bet you are the same people who push women to get married and have children in the first place, saying how selfish it is not to have kids.

  78. Maritza says:

    I loved “Titanic”! Leo and Kate together, that would be awesome! I really like these two!