Oscar winner and Hollywood beauty Julia Roberts has split with her boyfriend of nearly four years, hunky Law And Order star Benjamin Bratt.
“They have broken up,” confirmed Julia’s publicist. “They’re still great friends. It happened a while ago.” A spokesman for Benjamin echoed those sentiments.
Though the two were the picture of happiness at the Academy Awards in March, where she took home the best actress trophy for her role in Erin Brockovich, the two are said to have discussed parting ways as far back as the Golden Globes in January. Fearing the spotlight a break-up would cause, the two “kept it together for the Oscars”, a West Coast producer told the New York Post.
Insiders once suspected the two would tie the knot this summer, even going so far as to speculate they’d chosen her mum’s house as the location for the intimate affair. However, those plans now seem to have been put on ice.
“She is having a very, very hard time with this,” a friend of the Notting Hill star told the Post.
Though the pair’s representatives insist the split was amicable, Hollywood gossip says it was Benjamin who ended the relationship. The Next Best Thing star was said to be incensed over Julia’s new-found friendship with George Clooney, with whom she co-stars in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming remake of Ocean’s Eleven.
However, George shrugged off talk of his involvement, joking: “I didn’t have time. I was too busy breaking up Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s marriage.”
Others say Ben and Julia clashed over such typical couple issues as where to settle down; he prefers San Francisco, she New York.
“Julia is a complete commitment-phobe,” said one of Julia’s acquaintances. “At the end of the day, all she cares about is herself and her career. The thought of getting married again and having kids scares her silly.”
Julia’s next film, America’s Sweethearts, opens across the US on July 20.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
