Well well!! This news makes me very happy, actually. Natalie Portman has divorced Benjamin Millepied, eight months after his affair became public when a French tabloid published the photos of Benjamin with a 25-year-old named Camilla Etienne. The photos came out last July, but apparently the affair had been happening for a while and Natalie knew some of it ahead of time. Since then, Natalie has not worn her wedding ring to most of the events she’s attended, and there were rumors about an informal separation, but nothing was announced. It turns out, she filed for divorce and they got it finalized without anyone knowing before now:
Natalie Portman quietly filed for divorce from Benjamin Millepied, her director/choreographer husband of 11 years, eight months ago, and now the former couple is officially divorced, PEOPLE can exclusively confirm. The actress, 42, filed last July and the divorce was finalized last month in France, where Portman and Millepied, 46, live with their children, son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 7. A rep for Portman confirms the news to PEOPLE.
Navigating their under-the-radar separation, which followed media reports in May 2023 of an extramarital affair by Millepied, has not been easy for Portman.
“It was initially really tough for her, but her friends rallied around her and helped get her through the worst of it,” a friend of the couple tells PEOPLE. “Natalie is coming out of a really tough and painful year but she’s come out the other side of it stronger and is finding joy in her family, friends and work.”
From the start, the couple has focused on helping their kids adjust, and have been photographed showing a united front as a family on numerous occasions over the last year.
“Her biggest priority has been ensuring a smooth transition for her children,” the insider says. “She and Ben really love their kids and are equally focused on being the best co-parents they can be. Nothing is more important.”
While there were clue things were amiss in the marriage — Portman hasn’t worn her wedding ring since last spring after news of Millepied’s “short-lived” affair surfaced — the pair were able to take time to privately work through issues and toward a “new normal.”
Conscious uncoupling, the French way. While it’s sad for Natalie, I’m also happy for her and proud that she walked away from the marriage, rather than sticking with a cheater. I’m glad he didn’t find a way to worm his way back. Now they can co-parent and they can both move on. And yes, Benjamin cheated on his girlfriend WITH Natalie back in the day, I know. But still, eleven years together and two children, all of it derailed because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- 170952, Natalie Portman, Benjamin Millepied attends Benjamin Millepied And L.A. Dance Project Annual Gala. Los Angeles, California – Saturday October 7, 2017. Photograph: © PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Photoshot): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000,Image: 507689416, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Benjamin Millepied and Natalie Portman arrive on the red carpet of The 92nd Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 9, 2020.,Image: 563458145, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS РFee Payable Upon Reproduction РFor queries contact Avalon.red Рsales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Valerie Durant / Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – OCTOBER 16: Choreographer/dancer Benjamin Millepied and wife/actress Natalie Portman arrive at the L.A. Dance Project 2021 Gala – Unforgettable Evening Under The Stars held at The Pritzker Estate on October 16, 2021 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 638331907, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – OCTOBER 16: Choreographer/dancer Benjamin Millepied and wife/actress Natalie Portman arrive at the L.A. Dance Project 2021 Gala – Unforgettable Evening Under The Stars held at The Pritzker Estate on October 16, 2021 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 638331908, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones celebrating the 94th annual Academy Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 673540212, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied attends ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ – UK Gala Screening at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, England. UK. Tuesday 6th July 2022. -,Image: 705443554, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ – UK Gala Screening, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JANUARY 07: Natalie Portman wearing a Dior Haute Couture dress and De Beers jewelry arrives at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 835215813, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Natalie Portman, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California Featuring: Natalie Portman Where: Santa Monica, California, United States When: 25 Feb 2024 Credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
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- Celebrities attend the Christian Dior Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France Featuring: Natalie Portman Where: Paris, France When: 27 Feb 2024 Credit: Laurent Zabulon/Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Good for her. Glad she got rid of that loser.
If the children are the most important thing to him, he wouldn’t have cheated. He’s a pos and I’m glad she’s able to move on. What a painful time it must be for her. All the best.
He was living with a girlfriend when she started dating him, so both of them have to be losers.
Claiming a dancer’s work in Black Swan as her own.
Omg lol. Everyone has body doubles. That dancer went bonkers trying to prove which shots were hers and which were Natalie’s. As if she wasn’t hired to do that exact job.
Well, Natalie insinuated that all was her, minus a handful of things like fouettés, pirouettes and jumps.
And then it was proven that she was even doubled for different port-de-bras movements. So most of the dancing was indeed Sarah Lane (a soloist with ABT, not just *that dancer*) and, to a lesser extent, Kimberly Prosa.
So, yeah, it was all badly handled, to say the least, especially by Natalie, Benjamin, and the film’s publicists.
@Laura Principal ballerinas are not body doubles. And she wouldn’t have had to stick up for herself in such a way if Natalie had been honest about what was actually her. You can’t learn ballet to any kind of decent standard in a year, it’s a lifelong pursuit and passion which Natalie dismissed.
They are both a**holes, at least she’s ageing well, he’s starting to look extra terrestrial.
@janey I just guffawed. It’s the photo with the pink background, right?
I’ve always assumed that directors lie to actors about how much was them and how much was the double. But this whole controversy was caused by hiring someone as a stunt double who didn’t know that world and how credit for stunt performances work.
Not sure if the ballet dancer knew what was expected of her as a body double, but I didn’t mind the “investigations” of who did what dancing haha. It didn’t make Natalie look good, but I learned more about ballet. It did seem unbelievable that Natalie could be considered good enough to be at the level of a professional ballerina within a year. Jennifer Beals had to deal with people being mad at her for not doing the real dancing in Flashdance so what Natalie had to go through seemed small by comparison. She still retained her sterling actress reputation and got the Oscar.
@Janey—Indeed. I felt her response was that it came less for attention (although that was probably some of it), and more of a reaction to A. The very manipulative way Natalie And Aranovsky formally credited her for her work in a manner that pretty much deliberately concealed any dancer involvement and B. The denigration of an art form she had literally spent her life perfecting by acting like Natalie had mastered it in a year.
I think the ballerina was in the right; it was part of Natalie’s Oscar/awards campaigning to claim she was like a freakish athlete who mastered ballet in months for her art (acting).
It wasn’t all Natalie going on and on about it; I remember it was the director, Darren Aronofsky, and Fox Searchlight who said it was mostly Natalie doing the dancing work.
Well, it wasn’t and it did matter because they were campaigning for those awards so heavily partly based on that.
That ballerina worked years to master those very difficult moves and can imagine it would have been hard for her to stay silent – an attack on integrity even – whilst watching the PR machine pretend it was mostly Natalie.
On the other hand, Natalie couldn’t publicly contradict the director and the campaign too obviously. I remember she released something like she didn’t want to give into the gossip and didn’t go into details.
I really don’t think she meant to mislead but the director and production did.
Portman has always been a pretentious jerk. She cheated with him & expected everyone to them an aside because they married & had children. She claimed others hard work & dedication as her own. She shouldn’t have been surprised that he cheated as she already knew his character. She just thought she was so special that he wouldn’t do it to her.
I never understood what she saw in him, but oh well. Once a cheater…
It’s the forehead. Planes can take off that thing.
It is the forehead only a (human-hybrid-half alien) mother could love
Yeah, I always pictured with her someone else. I enjoy criticizing her from time to time and even I don’t get what she saw in him haha. She could have had anyone better. That’s my general assumption about beautiful women who look like her, and yet in every instance they pick someone I would never want to pick (if I had as many choices as they do). Go figure. Even if he played hard to get and was at the top of his field ( the usual explanations), I still don’t get it.
I guess the lesson is that even beautiful women have far fewer options than one might suppose.
But yeah…I never understood this choice, either.
How you get em is how you lose em. Glad she moved on tho!
Exactly S808, Benjamin had a girlfriend when Natalie showed up and the two relationships overlapped. As the old saying goes, “How you get him is how you will lose him.”
Once a cheater, always a cheater! Glad she left him!
Good for her & ex hub for not making it a media circus (a la Alice Evans, Kanye et al) because what really matters when 2 people divorce who share children is that their children’s well being comes first. The insecurities children feel when parents split is already anxiety inducing. Their parents having childish media outbursts is the just unnecessary trauma inducing.
Sadly Alice Evans has sacked her fifth lawyer in 3 years so once again their custody and financial case has now been delayed until June, wasting more time and money. Her ex husband is a jobbing actor, not Kevin Costner, so prolonged litigation is just squandering money that he doesn’t have.
*shrug* she knew what he was and she married him anyway, because she thought she was going to be the special one that he didn’t cheat on. Guess she saw how that worked out 🤷🏻♀️
The only ones I can muster up sympathy for are the kids. Glad they can keep things civil for them.
How much can you “really love” your kids when you have a public affair on their mother, your wife? If you want to leave the marriage and be with someone else, have the decency to end the relationship first. And yeah, I know, she was the other woman once upon a time but there are kids involved.
It’s so bizarre to me when they say stuff like this, “She and Ben really love their kids..” as opposed to all of those other parents who don’t? It’s just so weird.
How they got together wasn’t great but I respect the way Natalie has handled this.
Me too. In the era of social media, I respect anyone who plays their cards close to the vest. Natalie’s no reality tv clown, endlessly mugging for the camera; she understands the value and the dignity of privacy when it comes to one’s personal life. To say nothing of the fact that privacy is especially useful to an artistic career.
Regardless, for elevated public figures, especially actors and politicians, it all comes out in the end, doesn’t it?
Whispers around were that he was never really faithful to her. I suppose she decided to put up with it until this most recent side piece became public? Her choice I guess, she knew who he was.
Without ever even hearing that, that’s what I’ve always assumed. He just seems like that guy. 11 years is nothing to sneeze at, but he’s always seemed like a creep. Don’t love her either.
Once a cheater, always a cheater. Also- his forehead is HUGE. Reminds me of Megamind.
I just spit my coffee out. Best thing I’ve read today! Thanks, Moonstone!
How you got him is how you’ll lose him
She’s so gracious and intelligent. This is a great way to handle things and best wishes, to Natalie and the children.
She went into their relationship knowing he is a cheat. What did she expect? This is just Karma.
Thank you for choosing the funniest pictures to show that hairline of his. He will no longer get papped~ hurrah!
“She and Ben really love their kids”
Whichever PR flunky wrote that should be fired for such a lame use of words. They love their kids! As opposed to what, everyone else who hates their children?! As an editor that grinds my gears for being useless filler words!
I rolled my eyes at that too, but I think that is PR code for: “well we certainly can’t write that they move forward with great love and respect for each other because…ouch”. “Respect” certainly was out the window once he was screwing a woman almost young enough to be their daughter. 😬
Ooops.
If he cheats with you he’ll cheat on you.