What does it take to become a prominent Hollywood couple? There's a mysterious combination that
has to occur: star power, critical acclaim, spectacularly good looks, and a special X factor
that makes us crave more. Whatever the mixture must be, Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst had
it from 2002 to 2004. In that brief period, the two actors appeared in tabloid headlines
on what seemed like a daily basis. Welcome to Rumour Juice! In this episode, we’ll look into
a romance that was just too good to be true. The media's hunger for celebrity stories firmly
fixated on their relationship between Dunst and Gyllenhaal, largely thanks to their sweet,
blossoming attractiveness. It certainly didn't hurt that Dunst was coming off some of the biggest
successes in her entire career, starring as Mary Jane Watson in the first Spider-Man film in 2002.
Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, was known for his indie success with Donnie Darko.
The couple may have been young, but that didn't stop fans and the media from feasting
on their every interaction. Jake and Kirsten were introduced through the former’s sister, actress
Maggie Gyllenhaal, who co-starred alongside Dunst in Mona Lisa Smile. Jake and Kirsten obviously
hit it off when Maggie introduced them, as their romance started almost immediately after they met.
It's not clear to what extent Maggie remained in the couple's lives after introducing them.
Obviously, she still has a relationship with her brother Jake,
but it’s a mystery whether she stayed friends with Kirsten. Then again, Kirsten and Jake
didn't exactly stay friends (more on that later), so the outlook may not be too good.
Gyllenhaal was only 22 years old when they started dating, and Dunst was even younger. Their
relationship lasted less than two years. We know, we know. This seems like a short amount of time,
but it could look different when you think about how committed they appeared to be.
After their romance started to blossom, Gyllenhaal and Dunst moved in together and adopted a German
shepherd named Atticus. It actually turns out that they had a bit of a custody battle,
deciding who would be the one to keep him later. As Atticus had really always been Jake's, though,
he was the one to stay a pet parent. But despite the speed of their relationship,
Dunst knew she and Gyllenhaal weren’t headed for the altar anytime soon. “Oh,
I’m too young to get married,” she said just two months before their breakup was
announced. “Seriously, I’m 22 years old. It’s so annoying that they put pressure on you.”
Gyllenhaal, too, remained surprisingly grounded when it came to Dunst and the media frenzy,
confessing in the interview, “Kirsten and I know what’s real and what’s not,”
he revealed. “We know what happens when you are both actors.”
But wait, do you remember that legendary photo of Gyllenhaal and Dunst? In the summer of 2003,
they decided to go for lunch. She ordered a salad, and he ordered soup. At one moment,
Kirsten chose to experiment with eating her salad sans fork. Jake was either disgusted
or surprised with this display of boldness and watched her closely. The photo portrays him as
the stern disciplinarian, unhappy with his significant other's table manners.
Yeah, it is a little odd that Kirsten is just grabbing leaves from her salad and shoving them
in her mouth, but it's weirder that Jake appears to be genuinely upset about this. No doubt,
that photo went down in Hollywood’s history as one of the most puzzling.
Now let’s move on to the actual details of the relationship. Jake and Kirsten moved in
together pretty soon after becoming a couple. The relationship hadn't even lasted two years by the
time it ended, but by that point, they had already been living in the apartment for some time.
Dunst was actually the one who bought the place in 2003. It was an apartment in Los
Angeles that she purchased for over $1 million. It was a real luxury, with three bedrooms,
two and a half baths, heated floors, and all kinds of glossy decoration.
She would eventually sell it a couple of years later. Yes, it was the turning point in Kirsten’s
career, so she could afford that extravagant purchase, despite being in her early 20s.
And one thing's for sure, Jake and Kirsten definitely appreciated the old apartment's garage,
which allowed them to enter and exit without the paparazzi snapping a picture.
But why did they break up in the first place? It seems as if their relationship was so great!
There was one point of conflict that they apparently never managed to settle:
whether to go out or stay in. Kirsten reportedly explained in
an interview that their split came out of radically different lifestyle preferences.
“He’s a stay-at-home boy, and I’m an out-on-the-town girl,” she opened up.
She implied that this issue was one of the main factors in the breakup, something that
put real stress on the relationship. It seems they were never able to solve that problem.
A quiet night in with Jake Gyllenhaal may sound perfect to us, but Kirsten had other ideas.
The day Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst announced their split was a wild one for the
tabloid press. While their spokesperson was telling the media that Jake and Kirsten had
broken up, he also dropped another bombshell. It seems they actually broke up some time ago
and were reluctant to announce it for a long time! Naturally, this came as a bit of a shock to the
paparazzi who had been covering the couple, since it apparently went unnoticed up until that point.
Then again, Kirsten and Jake did a good job faking it in the preceding months.
If this is true, maybe the relationship was never as fairy tale perfect as they believed it to be?
At the same time, Kirsten said Jake was the love of her life.
Yeah, this is where things get a little muddy. While Dunst said that she and
Gyllenhaal weren’t right for each other, she appeared to re-examine that opinion.
While Kirsten acknowledged that their relationship couldn't last, she also said that Jake was the
love of her life. She really did care for Jake. Meanwhile, the romance between Jake and
Kirsten was frowned upon in her family. Kirsten’s mother Inez apparently has a lot of
opinions over who is fit to date her daughter. Gyllenhaal didn't meet those requirements.
She thought Jake was "too Hollywood," and too much of a snob for Kirsten.
To make matters worse, she said those things while unfavorably comparing Jake to Kirsten's
boyfriend at that time – Garrett Hedlund. Inez reportedly thought Hedlund was a
much better fit for her daughter, although that relationship also ended in a breakup.
Pretty much every remark Kirsten's mother allegedly made seemed to be about Jake. It
seems safe to say she didn't like him much. But she's not the only one to accuse Jake
Gyllenhaal of being a snob. That same issue came up in later relationships with people
like Taylor Swift, as several people claimed Jake has very snobby tastes in music and movies.
Wait, but what were Gyllenhaal’s thoughts on the romance? Did he actually love Kirsten?
In the interview with Howard Stern, Gyllenhaal was asked if he had ever been in love. As with
most of his interviews about his personal life, Jake wasn’t that eager to share the
details. "Three times," he said, before quickly changing his mind and answering: "Twice."
Unfortunately for us, he did not elaborate on who were those lucky significant ones.
That didn't stop media outlets from speculating, of course, poring over his previous serious
relationships to see which two would be the ones he actually loved. Jake didn't help matters by
immediately glossing over that and talking about how he eventually wants to get married
and how love fills his life with joy. But could it have been Kirsten?
Or maybe Reese Witherspoon, or Alyssa Miller ? Yes, Jake is known for his turbulent romances.
After his breakup with Kirsten, Jake briefly dated Natalie Portman, spent more than two
years with Reese Witherspoon, stayed with Taylor Swift for a year, and dated with model
Alyssa Miller for several months. It seems like somebody’s got an impressive dating life, right?
Though fans begged for the couple’s reconciliation, it never happened.
In fact, Dunst shattered our fantasy altogether in 2009 when she said that she and Gyllenhaal
are “not good friends.” The silver lining, though, is that she thought “it would be nice to see him.”
In the past 15 years, Dunst has shed her cocoon
and taken on a variety of unexpected roles, starring in experimental films like
Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, and even working on projects on TV.
Taking on her first major television role in season 2 of Fargo,
Dunst fell for onscreen husband, Jesse Plemons. They started dating after the show wrapped,
got engaged, and now have two young sons together. They reunited again in
2021 – this time, on the big screen for the Netflix drama The Power of the Dog.
It seems that Gyllenhaal's love life is thriving now as well.
Since 2018, Jake’s been dating his current girlfriend, Jeanne Cadieu. He has a 16-year
age difference with a young model, but the couple has been together almost three years.
From young lovebirds to mature Hollywood stars – Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst had a long
journey to be where they’re now. We’ve been wondering, what do you think about their romance?
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