We’ve heard several recent stories about Antonio Banderas cheating on his longterm wife, Melanie Griffith. Tabloids have speculated that their divorce is imminent, and in a recent interview Melanie barely mentioned Antonio. When Melanie stepped out last week without her wedding ring, people assumed that she was sending a strong signal that she was over the marriage and ready to kick Antonio’s ass to the curb. Only Antonio is said to be trying to make it up to her with romantic gestures and promises. Melanie supposedly isn’t swayed, and is trying to stay away from him, for now. Here’s more:
Antonio Banderas is going to all lengths to keep his marriage to Melanie Griffith from ending up in divorce court– and his tactics are working!
After several reports that the Spanish hunk had cheated on his wife of fifteen years, and the disappearance of her wedding rings last week, a source tells RadarOnline.com that Banderas has gone into crisis control to save their relationship and that Griffith is finally responding to his lovey-dovey tactics.
“Antonio has been desperately trying to win Melanie’s trust back,” a source tells RadarOnline.com.
“He has been doing everything in his power to revive the romance — flowers, sweet-talking on the phone, and extravagant gifts — because he realizes that she is close to her breaking point.”
Griffith, who was photographed last week without her wedding ring on, knows that she has the upper hand in the situation though and isn’t going to give in easily.
“She is playing hard to get,” the source revealed. “She has always known how to keep him on his toes and it wasn’t a coincidence that the cameras caught her with her wedding ring off! Ultimately she will probably stay with him but not before making him squirm.”
Though Griffith’s wedding bling in back on her finger, the Working Girl actress is keeping her distance, spending time vacationing with their children in Aspen and Hawaii, while Banderas is busy jet-setting around the world for work.
“The day Antonio flew into Los Angeles for a work gig, Melanie left with the kids for Aspen. She isn’t messing around.
“The last thing Banderas wants is a nasty high-profile divorce,” the source continues. “Despite their problems he still loves her and will do anything to keep her from leaving him.”
[From Radar]
I’ve heard of other situations where husbands cheat and then act remorseful and sweet when they’re busted. It’s like they want the freedom of stepping out with none of the consequences. They act devastated when they learn that their infidelity could cost them their marriages. Banderas has been so supportive and loving of Melanie in public that I never pegged him for a cheater, but you never know. All the recent stories have been adding up. So I guess I don’t blame Melanie for trying to keep Antonio at arm’s length but not cutting him out entirely. She clearly loves him a lot, but she’s not exactly being a doormat. Of course a lot of people would say she is if she takes him back. I don’t imagine that she’d respond any differently, but I could be wrong.
Antonio is shown at a benefit in Rome on 7-12-12. Melanie is shown at the Munich Film Festival on 7-4 and at an event on 6-7-12. She’s shown with Antonio at this year’s Oscars in February. Credit: Fame Flynet and WENN.com
Yes, I pegged him as a cheater, she clearly loves him a lot and I believe he loves her too. I do not think she is being a doormat if she takes him back, so is this fackery called love.
This relationship, all components of it, has always screamed HOT MESS to me….
Yep!
Yes, I agree.
If they end up in court…this could be the summer of divorces!!
the hell’s wrong with Zorro?!
don’t he know she’s got a ‘mind for bid-ness & a bod for sin’?!
He’d betta ask sombady! Lol 😉
lmao
Damn! Those Spanish men sure do not age well. He looks terrible. Imo
So many men leave their wives when the womand ages.
I admire Banderas sticking to his marriage and loving her to the end.
I think anyone can forgive his rare infidelity in exchange for how much he clearly adores her. I’d forgive him, then demand for more flowers and a boob lift (chuckles).
So you’d sell your morals and belittle yourself, send a message to everyone you know that you’re a doormat for a better rack?
No one said anything about counseling, spending time together, etc. and he cheated several times.
Enjoy your flowers I’d rather have my dignity.
I thought similarly. How are flowers and “romance” going to help a troubled marriage? Those things should be “accessories” to the relationship, if you will. If any party cheats, I can double-damn guarantee you, lack of flowers and romance is not to blame. If my husband cheated on me, it would take hard work to win my trust back… IF I even considered it (I’m not the sort who would… I’m pretty sure I’d be out the door).
@Chicagogurl17 I was married to a serial cheater.
And yes for a few years I gave up my “dignity” to make sure I had a roof over my infant son’s head because my family was dead and I had no where to go.
Banderas is not a serial cheater. You would have to be married to one in order to know what one is.
My opinion is that counseling can fix this one. He OBVIOUSLY loves her very much. And at her age, do you think she wants to be alone?
After years of marriage and your husband cheats on you once and you’d give up all that time invested……..YOU may be the one who loses the most.
She has some hot legs!
I’ve always thought she must have something really special to have been the hot guy magnet she has been all her life, even beyond other beautiful actresses. It particularly surprised me she was able to snag Antonio at the height of his Zorro hotness and hold him to this long despite the fact her face as become a Botox lip filler horror show. Apparently whatever it is, she still has it even if he may have strayed for sex or perhaps girls still capable of facial movement.
Many men love their family unit and wife and money and home accumulated over the years, and will never divorce, but occasionally they like some young strange on the side. It goes on far more than people realize and to far more wives than really know it.
Never underestimate the loyalty of a Malagan. Picasso was the same, he never divorced his wife. Unlike what’s been written about him, that’s the way his wife wanted it too. These people are not hapless victims. He may be at fault, but she may not be perfect. I hope they work it out. I like them a lot as a couple. They don’t try to shove their domestic bliss a la Travolta down people’s throats. They’re more real IMO. Go Antonio! Win her back!
Antonio divorced his first wife, Ana Leza (to whom, IIRC, he was married for around a decade) to be with Melanie – so it appears there are limits even to Malagan loyalty.
I might be being a hard ass on this, but infidelity is something I cannot forgive. I have zero respect for anyone who chooses to cheat on a spouse. There’s no excuse for it.
I absolutely agree about cheating being the deal breaker. Melanie really loved Antonio, and she must be devastated, no matter how many times he’s cheated. Hopefully she’ll divorce him, but I don’t think she will.
An aging 55-year-old actress in Hollywood, who relapses into her drug and alcohol addiction every few years, I doubt she will give him up. The next might be worse in Hollywood as far as cheating and not stand by her in all her addictions.
Two theories on why he cheated….
1. He used to be so hot. Not so much now. Needs to prove to himself that he’s still attractive. (Though some women will sleep with a complete and utter troll as long as they’re famous, so getting women into bed isn’t going to be a huge challenge for him)
2. Penelope Cruz was right, and Spanish men believe its their duty to screw as many women as they can, irrespective of their marital status.
I’d say a mixture of both.
Penelope Cruz is a self hatred b*tch and always acts as a total c*nt when comes to Spain. Besides to that, generalizations and topics are stupid things, I have a wonderful spanish husband, loyal and caring, so you see, not everybody is the same.
I heard that both Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are not well liked in Spain – do they act like the king and queen when they’re there?
I was wondering this too. I haven’t heard anything about Penelope, but I’ve heard that Javier is an asshole in real life.
That’s a generalization I don’t agree with. I’m married to a Spanish man and he takes marriage very seriously and is disgusted by men and women who don’t.
I don’t think race has anything to do with fidelity. Many men and women cheat regardless of what racial background they fall under.
I think it might be more of a cultural (and subsequently, societal) generalization, rather than a racial one.
Nope not me…once a cheat always a cheat. He went and dipped his wick in another candle after pledging fidelity to his WIFE. MOVE ON MEL!
Although why anybody is shocked that somebody in Hollywood cheated is beyond my comprehension. I’d be shocked if I found that there was anybody out there who doesn’t cheat and can prove it!
Sorry, a lurker here that decided to speak up. It’s been awhile, so my memory is rusty, but didn’t their whole relationship begin with infidelity? Didn’t Mel cheat on Don Johnson to get Antonio to begin with? Seems like he was married at the time too, if I’m not mistaken. What goes around comes around.
Zwella…you are right. I had forgot how these two originally hooked up when I commented here. But can you blame me? Mel and Ant are pretty forgetable people really. 🙂
Wasn’t it Alan Rachnis, or someone who looks like him, who said in all his years of celebrity he had never kissed another woman on the lips except his wife. I always thought that was a cool claim for a celebrity.(No I’m not confusing him with Kirk Cameroon who says those things for “religious” purposes)
they knew so many UP&DOWN:their marriage will survive
I am surprise this marriage has lasted this long especially since both were married when they met. So it was only a matter of time when one of them would have started cheating again. I don’t feel any sympathy for either of them.
Not to excuse anything, but she was married to Don Johnson (again) at the time of her and Antonio getting together, and Johnson seems like he would be a huge douche, so perhaps I can forgive her for cheating with Antonio.
Um, if I’m not mistaken they both cheated on their spouses to be with each other so I’m not at all surprised that he cheated. I’m sure this wasn’t the first time he did.
Exactly! They were cheaters who married. It seemed to me Melanie has spent the entirety of their marriage trying to prevent him from cheating on her.
In most cases with people who met this way, there is a level of insecurity that they can’t avoid. There is no trust because they both know how their relationship started. Not a fun way to spend your life. Perhaps that’s why Melanie was always so strung out.
I agree with you Jezzi.
And as a side note, I wish they’d stop romanticizing affairs on TV. It’s always sickened me how they seem to enjoy sneaking around behind their respective partners backs.
I really like Melanie, since I was a kid. It always seemed she was too over the moon for this guy. I wish them the best. Antonio’s looks are… ummmm…. kinda off these days huh?
But, when you marry a man that cheats on his wife, you are married to a man that cheats on his wife.
Ha! I agree. They always struck me as a strange couple. They certainly sucked the hot out of each other, though. Yikes.
Don & Melanie cheated on each other. Maybe Antonio has cheated on her. She probably hasn’t cheated on him because she’s not such a catch – drunken-druggie mess with not much of a career for decades. Hard for me to understand how he put up with her dependencies for all these years.
People who have been married a long time, especially when one of them is an addict who puts the family through hell on a regular rotation…he deserves forgiveness for a mistake.
People who say they are 100% intolerant and could never forgive/understand/get over infidelity are generally those who have never been married or never been in a relationship for enough years to see all the different ways that infidelity can happen.
There are different kinds of cheating, and there are all different kinds of neglect in long-term relationships.
Never is a very final word, and life is too complex and marriage is too much of a two-way street for people to go around listing things they will never forgive. Someone that interested in protecting their own interests is very likely to ignore the needs and interests of the spouse…thereby bringing to pass that which he/she fears and has vowed “never” to forgive.
Being cut off sexually by the other partner for years; being neglected either physically or emotionally for a number of years; going through lengthy periods of illness or depression in which one partner is the universal giver while the other has to take…these things all happen for a number of reasons that don’t have to be deal-breakers, and all of these things leave one of the partners open to the possibility of infidelity. My admonition is that people stop judging marriages outside their own. If she decides to forgive and forget, that’s between her and her husband…and any little petty judgment you have for her choice is about you, not her. I would never judge a woman for leaving her marriage after the discovery of an infidelity…and I would never judge her for staying, either.
So true on all points! I think he did an admirable job of staying by her side when she was going through the drug abuse.
Beautifully stated. It is very easy to say “I would leave if…” when you aren’t in that situation. When it happens sometimes you do what you swear you would never do. Never say never.
I don’t think it’s fair to label someone as a doormat for taking back their significant other who cheated. As long as you’re comfortable with the decision and make healthy progress to mend the relationship, it’s no one’s business how you handle your personal life. That being said, it would take more than flowers and shit to win me back. At least an honest attempt at mending the relationship that doesn’t involve stupid gifts.
Didn’t anyone see Madonna’s Truth or Dare? She was obsessed with Antonio Banderas and he could hardly speak English at the time but told her it was customary in Spain for married men to sleep with other women. He was currently married to Ana Leza then.
I think Antonio looked his best in “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.”
Oh then you’ve never seen “Tie me up tie me down”? Because he was HOT in that movie.
Years ago, when Antonio Banderas was working in “Imagining Argentina” I was an assistant producer. He was really kind and kept to himself. One day Melanie Griffith shows up and everyone in set hated her, she wouldn’t let anyone get near Antonio and would demand hair and makeup first, even though she wasn’t in the movie. If there were notes to be passed to Antonio you had to speak to Melanie first. We often wondered how did he stand her? I’m not surprised he cheated on her and I’m not surprised she is taking him back, after all, I think she knows what a pain in the ass she is.
Argengirl – if what you say is true, then maybe Antonio should be the one leaving her, not cheating. If she’s so much a pain in the ass that people on set do not like her, geez, he must have to put up with a lot. After reading your note, I have changed my tune completely. Thanks for the insight !!
I don’t blame him for cheating on her. He has stuck around and put up with more than most men would. She has a plastic surgery monster face and a drug problem, not to mention narcisistic self pity – she reminds me of Demi Moore.
I think she sucked the “hott” right out of him…sheesh!
Nah. He just aged like we all do.
I think they love each other and are a team; however, if he’s cheated more than once, then she should definitely never take him back. I don’t think he’s cheating because she’s getting older, as he is looking much older, too, but that they’ve been together for so many years and sometimes the grass looks greener on the other side. Too bad about cheating, I do not admire unfaithfulness for whatever reason. Flowers wouldn’t do it for me.
She actually looks good here! I thought that maybe he was one of those men who would never cheat….but there doesn’t appear to be that kind of man.
Lesson number 6,874 about Why We Do Not Honor Our Love With A Tattoo.
Im reallly very surprised that al of the snarkers on here “buy” this “relationship.” Melanie and Antonio have a lavender marriage. If he’s cheating on her its with a man, not a woman. Wake up people.
At one point, many years ago, she said they had an “open” marriage. Why is this even an issue? They have s** with others separately and together. These celebs don’t view marriage the same way the average person does.
It was just a matter of time before he cheated after the fool she made of herself chasing him in the beginning. The article is wrong, she’s never had the upper hand in that relationship.