This A-list pair was one of Hollywood's most steadfast couples, and their 2016 breakup
was one of the year's most shocking. But they seemed to go through a drama-free split, and
put their kids' needs above all. Here's what you need to know about Naomi Watts and Liev
Schreiber's split.
Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber were the couple that had everything, except a marriage certificate.
Refuting rumors of wedding bells seemed a common pastime for the ex-lovebirds over the
course of their relationship. Schreiber once flippantly joked to Entertainment Tonight
during an interview at the 2007 Tony Awards,
“We are married. You got it first. Break the story!”
After other reporters at the event picked up on the Schreiber-created rumor, the star
learned the valuable lesson that sarcasm doesn't always translate in the press. However, according
to Radar Online, Watts and Schreiber were reportedly all set to glide down the aisle
on New Year's Eve 2008, but then they had a last-minute change of heart. Meanwhile,
HuffPost alleged that Schreiber had given Watts a ring in January 2010. Ring or no,
their relationship found its conclusion without a wedding in September 2016.
Although Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts officially split in September 2016, their romance might
have run dry much earlier. According to TMZ, sources alleged that the former lovers might
have been living apart as early as January 2016. Their reps, of course, denied this,
using the couple's 2016 Oscars outing together in February as evidence, but this might have
been just for show. According to Watts and Schreiber's official joint statement,
"Over the past few months we've come to the conclusion that the best way forward for us
as a family is to separate as a couple. It is with great love, respect, and friendship
in our hearts that we look forward to raising our children together and exploring this new
phase of our relationship."
The downside to being part of a power couple is that power couples have hectic jobs. Naomi
Watts and Liev Schreiber have both often expressed their frustrations with this over the years.
Schreiber told TV Week,
"[Finding time for one another] has been one of the things that have been really, really
hard for Naomi and I. [...] To find time for each other and to make time for each other.
I think that is what makes a successful relationship."
Having children only intensified their work-life balancing woes. In a 2008 interview on Jimmy
Kimmel Live, Watts revealed that Sasha, the couple's first son, had already traveled to
three different continents by the tender age of seven months. The actress admitted,
"I'm not proud of it."
As Sasha and younger brother Kai grew older, their parents remained adamant that the children
would live in New York with their mom year-round, even as Schreiber split his time between the
Big Apple and Los Angeles, where he was shooting his Showtime series Ray Donovan. Schreiber
told Ellen DeGeneres in 2016,
"The kids are at that age where you want them to have a continuity with friends and school.
[...] You have to put them first at a certain point, and the back-and-forth thing can get
tough."
As the actor explained to TV Week in 2017,
"Everyone who dedicates that much time to their work [...] it changes you. It changes
relationships. It changes everything."
A source reportedly close to the couple told OK! in 2012,
"They've been on shaky ground for years. [...] They split because she wants to travel the world,
making movies and attending film festivals and red carpets. But he is a New Yorker and
just wants to settle down with their kids."
"Liev's heart is definitely in New York with the theater, right?"
Meanwhile, another insider alleged to Radar Online in 2010,
"[Schreiber] would like [Watts] to take more of a back seat when it comes to her career
[...] be more of a stay-at-home mom."
In the aftermath of many breakups, one party often suffers a worse fallout. In 2017, Schreiber
shared with News that he had spent a year struggling after his break-up with Naomi Watts.
"I hate change and I hate adjusting. [...] I don't like everybody not living in the same
house anymore. [The split] really knocked me out and I have spent a year struggling
with that. It’s been hard not having my family around me. [...] But it’s just slowly
getting better."
Conversely, Watts seemed to handle the breakup better, and told Harper's BAZAAR in 2019,
"Liev and I always knew we had to put the kids first and that, no matter what, we would
respect each other and take care of each other in the best way going forward for the benefit
of our children. And we've kept things in a great space. We're easy with each other
and we want the best for each other [...] Our friendship is better now than it ever was.
And I feel like my kids are in a good place."
Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber have made it a priority from the get-go to maintain a solid
friendship for their children. On Sunday TODAY in 2018, Schreiber recounted a story from
breakfast that morning when his sons' eyes lit up once he mentioned Watts. He explained,
"You can see how important it is to [the kids] that their parents care about each other."
Watts even admitted to Net-a-Porter in 2019 that she and Schreiber had an unusually supportive
and forward-thinking relationship when it came to co-parenting. She said,
"I'm pretty proud of us, corny as that may sound. [...] We're doing things very differently.
We've made it our absolute priority to be good and kind to each other and we're absolutely
committed to that."
"We're parents together. We'll be together for the rest of our lives, no matter what."
Since Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber's official split in 2016, the exes have remained close.
Rumors surfaced in 2018 that the former lovebirds had actually moved back in together so as
to co-parent under the same roof, except with their own distinct living spaces inside a
shared home. Their living conditions became even more unorthodox in the wake of the 2020
coronavirus pandemic, as the two began self-isolating in March as a unit with their sons, along
with Schreiber's new girlfriend, Taylor Neisen. The Daily Mail reported that Schreiber and
Neisen had moved from their New York base to a condo near Watts' Venice Beach home to
ride out the rest of the pandemic in close proximity. It seems as though these two have
managed to survive a breakup, and come out the other side as a strong family unit.
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