Meryl Streep and Don Gummer Have Been Separated for Six Years

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | October 23, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | October 23, 2023 |

September 30th was Meryl Streep’s and Don Gummer’s 45th wedding anniversary, but they probably didn’t celebrate it because they’ve been separated for six years.

In a statement to PEOPLE Magazine, a representative for Streep said: “Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than six years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart.”

The couple have not made any public appearances since the 2018 Oscars when Streep was nominated for her role in The Post, but she was photographed wearing her wedding band this past Friday at an awards ceremony in Spain.

Streep met Gummer, a sculptor, through her brother in 1978, when she was mourning the death of her then-boyfriend, actor John Cazale, who had recently died of lung cancer. Their whirlwind romance culminated in a wedding in September of that year. They have four children together—Henry Wolfe, Louisa Jacobson, Grace Gummer, and Mamie Gummer—and five grandchildren.

Streep may have been the star in the marriage, but for his part, Gummer made a name for himself as an artist. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Yale University, where he received his MFA, and he has seen his work represented in exhibitions worldwide.

Neither Streep nor Gummer have spoken publicly about their marriage very much over the past 45 years, but in a 2002 interview with Vogue, Streep admitted that the secret to their successful relationship was “goodwill and a willingness to bend—and to shut up every once in a while.” When she won the Oscar for her role in The Iron Lady in 2012, her husband was the first person she thanked:

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