Meryl Streep and Don Gummer Have Been Secretly Split For Over 6 Years

This year has not been the best year for celebrity romances, as some of the most surprising Hollywood couples have called it quits, from Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello to Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner. But no one could have predicted adding Meryl Streep and Don Gummer to the list.

Sources have confirmed to Page Six that Streep and Gummer have been secretly separated for more than six years. "Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than 6 years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart," a spokesperson for the former couple said.

The news comes most certainly as a shock because while their last public appearance together was at the 2018 Oscars, Streep was wearing her wedding band as recently as Friday at the 2023 Princesa de Asturias Awards.

The former couple first met in 1978 later getting married only six months later. From the very beginning, the two relatively kept their relationship out of the limelight. In a 2002 interview with Vogue, Streep revealed that the secret to sustaining their relationship over the years was "goodwill and willingness to bend — and to shut up every once in a while."

"There's no road map on how to raise a family: It's always an enormous negotiation," she continued. "But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can't imagine eschewing one for the other."

A power couple in their own right, while Streep climbed the ladder to become what many consider one of the greatest actresses of our generation, Gummer has found immense notoriety in the art world as a respected sculptor.

The separated couple shares four children: Henry Wolfe, 43, Mamie Gummer, 40, Grace Gummer, 37, and Louisa Jacobson, 30. They also share five grandchildren: Two grandchildren from Wolfe, two grandchildren from Mamie, and one newborn grandchild from Grace.

At the 2012 Oscars, Streep won Best Actress for her role in The Iron Lady, in which she first thanked her husband — giving a rare comment about their relationship amid their notoriously private life.

“First, I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech, they play him out with music," she said. "I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you’ve given me."

Though news of their split has been confirmed, there of course is the question of why. Why did Streep and Gummer separate? Unfortunately, there has been no further explanation or provided reasoning about the split.