The uber-private actress Scarlett Johansson shocked us all when news broke of her divorce
from French journalist and art consultant Romain Dauriac in January 2017. They were
notoriously private, making only a handful of red carpet appearances over the course
of their relationship. What went wrong between this pair?
The relationship between Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac moved at light speed. They
were first publicly linked in late October 2012 when cameras caught them on a lunch date
after a mutual friend reportedly introduced them to one another. Ten months later, they
were engaged. In September 2014, they welcomed daughter Rose Dorothy, and a month after that
they eloped. Had they slowed down enough to get to know each other better, they may have
had a much shorter relationship with much less paperwork to do once they decided it
wasn't going to work out.
A source told Us Weekly,
"Scarlett initiated splitting up and made the decision. She felt like they didn't have
much in common as far as lifestyle."
A source close to Dauriac echoed the sentiment, telling People,
"I've been expecting this for some time. Romain and Scarlett has never made sense to me. They
aren't equals. There's always been something wrong with this picture."
Johansson previously told Parade that their differences were what attracted them to one
another, but perhaps those contrasts were too great to be genuinely compatible.
"We're interested in each other's worlds. He's interested in my weird, alien entertainment
world. It fascinates him because it's so different than what he knows. And I like to go to art
openings with him and talk about art and emerging artists with him. That's his passion."
Before she met Romain Dauriac in late 2012, Scarlett Johansson was already a powerful
presence in Hollywood, but after they tied the knot, her career exploded. She starred
in three films in 2013, including Her and Under the Skin, and followed up that with
three huge movies in 2014, including Lucy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In
2015, she was in a little old flick called Avengers: Age of Ultron.
"Oh, no no, that's not a question I need answered."
Her 2016 was just as busy. She voiced a lead character in the animated movie Sing, reprised
her role as Black Widow in Captain America: Civil War, and went full-on old Hollywood
for Hail, Caesar!. In June 2016, Box Office Mojo ranked her the highest grossing actress
of all time.
Johansson previously spoke of the struggle to balance work and play. She told The Wall
Street Journal in 2014,
"There must exist a world in which I can balance those things, be able to raise a family and
still make a film a year, or work on my own, develop things, do theater. I want to be able
to have it all."
Perhaps Dauriac became too controlling for Johansson's liking, because she's previously
expressed that feeling stifled is a pet peeve of hers. She told Marie Claire in 2013,
"I don't like jealous behavior. I don't mind an occasional check-in, but when somebody
is passive-aggressively jealous, it's really unattractive because it shows a sort of insecurity...Oh,
controlling behavior is awful. Nobody's going to say they love that."
Of course, we can't be sure who she was referring to there, since she also told Parade in 2015,
"[Marriage] takes a lot of work. It takes a man who's not only confident in the love
that you have for one another, but confident in what he has going on in his own career.
He has to be in a field that's completely different from yours. My husband's also involved
in art. What's important to him is the recognition that he gets from his job, and that has nothing
to do with my job."
That's... great?
Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac divided their time between Paris and the United States,
but because she's so close with her family, the actress may have wanted to stay home more
often than her hubby would have liked.
"We travel a lot, and also we live in Paris too, which is absolutely wonderful. We just
got back from there. So he's probably jet-lagged." She told Parade that she's close with her
family, who was based in New York City, especially her twin brother, Hunter.
"I feel very connected to him. He's the most golden-hearted person. I think a lot of people
spend their life looking for a partner, someone to be a mirror to reflect upon, to remind
them that they've lived. You want someone to tell you what he witnessed in your life.
My twin brother has always been that for me."
Though they reportedly broke up over the summer of 2016, Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac
remain friendly. They're still business partners for their Yummy Pop popcorn boutique in Paris
and attended the grand opening together in December 2016. Johansson and Dauriac even
attended an art opening together just days after their split was announced in January
2017, posing for photos and looking chummy as ever. It appears that though the marriage
has run its course, their friendship and co-parenting relationship is strong.
Romain Dauriac reportedly grew tired of his wife and daughter bouncing from location to
location. When Scarlett Johansson officially filed for divorce in March 2017, citing that
their marriage was, quote, "irretrievably broken," Dauriac's lawyer told Page Six,
"He would like to move to France with his daughter and Ms. Johansson does a lot of traveling.
It will be an interesting process."
A source close to the divorce told Page Six the couple had an informal custody arrangement
for their daughter in which they each spent every other week with the child. However,
the arrangement seems unsatisfactory for Dauriac. The source said,
"[Johansson] would take the child on these trips like when she was shooting in New Zealand.
The kid was bouncing back and forth...It can't work because [Johansson] travels so much."
The source added that when Dauriac protested the arrangement, he was reportedly told, quote,
"This is what they do in Hollywood."
After Romain Dauriac's lawyer's statement made the media rounds, the famously private
Scarlett Johansson followed up with one of her own, telling E! News,
"As a devoted mother and private person and with complete awareness that my daughter will
one day be old enough to read the news about herself, I would only like to say that I will
never, ever be commenting on the dissolution of my marriage. Out of respect for my desires
as a parent and out of respect for all working moms, it is with kindness that I ask other
parties involved and the media to do the same. Thank you."
Shots fired. Shots returned.
Fortunately, Johansson and Dauriac were able to work out terms — and they were able to
do it within the bounds of their fiercely guarded privacy. In September 2017, Page Six
reported the exes "submitted a sealed settlement" which both finalized their divorce and resolved
the custody battle.
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