Meryl Streep is arguably one of the best actresses of all time. She has been nominated for an Academy Award 21 times and taken home Oscar gold three times. Beyond the stage and screen, she tends to stay out of the limelight. On Friday October 20, 2023, Page Six broke the the news that Meryl and her husband Don Gummer have been separated for more than six years.
Meryl and Don were married in 1978 and share four adult children. They were last seen out publicly at the 2018 Oscar ceremony.
Meryl broke the news in a statement via a representative. “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,” it read.
The same day that the news broke, Meryl attended the 2023 Princess of Asturias Awards in Spain. She was wearing her wedding band. This year marks their 45th wedding anniversary.
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Meryl and Don first met in 1978 through her brother. Meryl had just lost her partner, fellow actor John Cazale, to lung cancer. Don and Meryl had an instant connection and were married just six months later.
Don is originally from Louisville, Kentucky. He is a renowned sculptor. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he earned his BFA and the Yale School of Art, where he earned his MFA.
Meryl and Don share three daughters and a son. Henry Wolfe Gummer works in the music industry and has two children of his own whom he shares with his wife Tamryn Gummer. Mamie Gummer is following in her mother’s footsteps as an actor and shares a son with husband Mehar Sethi.
Grace Gummer is also an actress. She shares a daughter with husband Mark Ronson. Meryl and Don’s youngest is Louisa Jacobson who is also an actress. She uses her middle name as her last name because there was already another actor named Louisa Gummer.
In 2002, Meryl opened up to Vogue magazine about how she and Don made their marriage work. She credited their longevity to "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 explained. "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."
Meryl told The Washington Post in 1998 that motherhood was more challenging than acting. "Mothering. Definitely. Acting — that's praise, money, fulfillment. Mothering — they don't even say, 'Thank you.' They don't even clear the table unless you say, 'Excuuuse me.' Real life, there's no comparison to acting. I can't really call acting work, since it's secretly so fun. Even the difficult things; it's satisfying to do the difficult things well," she mused.
