She's the pretty woman that smiled and dazzled her way into all of our hearts.
However, Julia Roberts has done some not-so-pretty things in the name of love.
Today, the actress is married to the father of her three children, Daniel Moder, and while
they're busy living their happily-ever-after, things didn't start out that way. In fact,
things started in a rather scandalous manner for the couple. And by scandalous,
we mean the adulterous kind. Yep, who would have thought that the angelic Julia Roberts
fell in love with her current husband after having an affair? We have all the details on
how the actress broke Benjamin Bratt's heart with an affair that not many people want to talk about.
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Julia met Benjamin in 1997 when they bumped into each other at a restaurant. Benjamin walked into
the room, and when Julia looked up at him, it was like he was whacked over the head with a baseball
bat. Can you blame the guy? We can believe that Roberts' smile can have that effect on people.
"The actual story is wildly interesting and calamity-filled and hilarious and
wonderful and all these great things that are incredibly personal and private to us." Julia
said about the night they met, wanting to keep the details of the evening to herself.
Roberts and Bratt went on to enjoy an incredibly sweet relationship before things went so wrong,
and they had no control over how bad things were going to get.
During their relationship, the Hollywood stars and real-life sweethearts were "just
ecstatically happy" together, according to what she told Oprah Winfrey in 2000.
Roberts confessed, "We're drunk with joy 24 hours out of the day. We're sickening."
The actress also gushed over Bratt with every opportunity she got, saying,
"He's very good-looking, and his handsomeness pales in comparison to his kindness.
That is all a girl could ask for, really."
It's no doubt that Julia was obviously madly in love, bubbling over with joy while cozied up in
the bliss of their fairy-tale romance. However, when it came to how Benjamin felt, he seemed to
be a man of very few words. He admitted that how he felt couldn't be summed up in a few sentences,
but he did try to do just that while saying, "She's an incredible woman."
It seemed as though Roberts and Bratt had what it took to take Hollywood by storm with their love.
They had a swoon-worthy and loving relationship, which is why they managed to make it work for a
few years. Sadly, love wasn't enough to withstand their unusual circumstances.
Sadly, after almost four years as a couple, Benjamin Bratt's publicist
confirmed in June 2001 that he and Julia Roberts were "no longer together."
While talking to David Letterman, Roberts explained that it had come
"to a kind and tenderhearted end," but acknowledged that the media couldn't
"accept" the amicable nature of the split and, instead, had "to make it messy and ugly."
The press had reported that the stars had split "because he was jealous of
her attentions to her ... co-star, George Clooney." Beyond that, an insider claimed
that Roberts was having a tough time handling the fact that she'd "[gotten] the boot from Bratt."
As for Bratt, he opened about the failed romance in 2002 and referred to Roberts' level of fame,
admitting, "I wasn't so naïve as to go into that relationship thinking,
'this will be an entirely normal experience. I experienced that
living at that level of visibility is something that doesn't appeal to me."
So was it all as amicable as they were making it out to be? Well, to put it simply … no, it wasn't.
This is where Julia's current husband, Daniel Moder, comes into the picture.
Both Roberts and Moder were in committed relationships when they met on the set of
the film "The Mexican" back in 2001. Moder, a cinematographer, had been married to make-up
artist Vera Steimberg for four years while Roberts was still with Benjamin. They had
also been dating for almost four years. Despite both being in committed long-term relationships,
it didn't stop the pair from falling head-over-heels in love with one another.
By the time the cameraman met the actress, his marital commitment to
Vera had gone out the window. Moder filed for divorce a little over a year later,
but Steimberg didn't want to sign the divorce papers. It was alleged that Roberts
had tried to "shame her into it," which quickly backfired, putting her reputation on the line.
The actress seemed to lose her hard-won status as "America's Sweetheart,"
and her career took a fumble too. As far as her personal life, however, everything worked out.
According to reports, Roberts insisted that she wasn't the reason for Moder's divorce,
but the rumors were too powerful to ignore.
"He sorted his whole thing out, separate and apart from me," the actress confessed,
"And I sorted my life out, separate and apart from him. I think that's the only
reason we were able to ultimately fall in love with each other and be together."
At one point, Roberts was photographed wearing a DIY T-shirt that read,
"A Low Vera." This didn't help the scandal. When the actress was asked why she wore the shirt,
she replied, "It was private. ... I stand by my T-shirt."
It might have been private, but people thought that putting it on a t-shirt makes it
not so private anymore, especially when it had the name of her lover's ex-wife on it.
This wasn't the first time Julia used her style to throw shade at those who had done her dirty.
In the past, the actress broke off her engagement with Kiefer Sutherland
after she found out he was cheating on her. Following their split, the actress was said
to have thrown shade at Kiefer by seeking comfort in the arms of his best friend,
Jason Patric. On the eve of what would have been their wedding date,
Roberts turned up to a photoshoot wearing Patric's shirt and his baseball hat.
Julia clearly doesn't go for the subtle blow.
When asked if she was the cause of the Moders divorce, Roberts said,
"I'm an easy person to point the finger at — 'she did it' — and I see that. I don't
begrudge people the easy finger-point. It just doesn't happen to be so."
When Moder's divorce was eventually finalized, he immediately took the opportunity to propose
to Roberts. They made their love official later that year and said their vows on July
4, 2002, at Roberts' New Mexico ranch - does anyone else see an ongoing theme with Mexico
here? They met on the set of "The Mexican," and then they married in Mexico … hmmm.
Coincidentally, they wed around the same time that Roberts' ex, Benjamin Bratt,
also got married to fellow actress Talisa Soto. At the time, Roberts said Moder "makes me
feel my most comfortable self. I don't alter myself in any way."
It's not hard to figure out that Moder is significantly less famous than Roberts.
However, unlike Julia's ex, Bratt, Moder seemed to be completely unbothered by his
new wife's fame. But maybe that's what made the couple work. Roberts had previously had
a string of high-profile relationships with equally famous men over the years,
and Moder was different from every one of them.
"I think that first kind of real … 'seismic shift' was meeting Danny,"
Roberts told Gwyneth Paltrow in 2018. "Getting married to Danny. That was the first, like,
my life will never be the same in the most incredible, indescribable way."
They probably also worked because they'd both previously been married. Roberts had
been married to country singer Lyle Lovett for two years back in 1993. The 'Notting Hill' star
was also previously linked to Dylan McDermott, Matthew Perry, Jason Patric, and Liam Neeson.
Julia and Daniel welcomed the twins Phinnaeus and Hazel in 2004.
Their third child, son Henry, was born in 2007.
"The thing is, we have these three human beings who are just
a complete reflection of the affection we have for each other," Julia shared.
Roberts later said her kids don't really understand how famous she is, and she doesn't
think that they'll ever have a true sense of her fame. "When they were starting to figure it out,
it was like, 'You're famous?' And I said, 'I think a lot of people might have seen the movie that I'm
in or might know who I am.' Maybe an hour goes by. 'Are you more famous than Taylor Swift?'"
The actress also admitted that there's no way to describe her relationship and life with her
kids without sounding "sappy or ridiculous" because everything in her mind ends with an
exclamation point. because everything in my mind ends with an exclamation point,"
In Gwyneth Paltrow's podcast, Roberts revealed that her husband is still her "favorite human."
Although the couple had a rocky start to their relationship, after almost 20 years together,
they've proved that what they had was so much more than just an affair.