In what many have dubbed "the year of the celebrity split," a surprise one that left fans shocked and heartbroken was the separation of Meryl Streep and husband Don Gummer.
The two revealed in a statement shared with Page Six: "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 pair married in 1978, six months after Meryl lost her first love in a heartbreaking turn of events. Read more about her first romance, how it took a turn for the worse, and the way it led her to Don…
Meryl Streep's First Love
In 1976, a then 27-year-old Meryl was making a name for herself as a rising star in the theater, having just graduated from the Yale School of Drama and picking up credits at a Shakespearean Festival in New York City.
© Getty ImagesOne of those plays was Measure for Measure, opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, 41 at the time and a major movie star known for turns in The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather II, and Dog Day Afternoon.
Through their work on the play, the pair quickly became friends and then fell in love, and Meryl moved in with John later that year.
In a later interview, Meryl said: "He wasn't like anybody I'd ever met. It was the specificity of him, and his sort of humanity and his curiosity about people, his compassion."
Turn For the Worse
© Getty ImagesFor a little under a year, the couple lived in absolute bliss, and were the shining stars of the New York theater scene. However, in 1977, everything changed.
When John began missing performances of his new play Agamemnon, he was persuaded to visit the doctor, and he found out that he was suffering from terminal lung cancer.
MORE: Inside Meryl Streep's 45-year marriage to husband Don Gummer amid separation
Meryl immediately devoted herself to taking care of him as he continued trying to push himself into his work. As detailed in Michael Schulman's 2016 biography, Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, she also took a role she was uninterested in to be closer to John, that being the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, which won her a Primetime Emmy Award.
© Getty ImagesShe eventually agreed to star in the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978) alongside her boyfriend, in what would be his final role and her star-making turn. The filmmakers fought for John's inclusion in the film despite his worsening health, and Meryl spent over two months in Austria on location away from John after his schedule ended.
John passed away on March 3, 1978 at the age of 42, with Meryl beside him. Michael Schulman wrote in his 2016 book: "What happened next, by some accounts, was the culmination of all the tenacious hope Meryl had kept alive for the past ten months.
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"She pounded on his chest, sobbing, and for a brief, alarming moment, John opened his eyes. 'It's all right, Meryl,' he said weakly. 'It's all right.'" He then closed his eyes and died.
How Meryl Streep met Don Gummer
© Getty ImagesDeep in mourning, the Sophie's Choice actress found refuge in then-aspiring sculptor Don Gummer, a friend of her brother's who offered her his New York apartment to stay in while she recovered.
They developed a friendship through the association, and the resulting comfort blossomed into love. Six months after John's death, she married Don, and they've welcomed four children together; son Henry Wolfe, and daughters Mamie, Grace, and Louisa, all working actresses.
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