"I haven't had a girlfriend in 20 years. The truth is I am lonely part of every day." That's
what 60-year-old Val Kilmer has recently disclosed. How come one of the hottest Hollywood guys
who used to date Angelina Jolie and Cindy Crawford ended up being all alone?
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In the past several years, the life of Val Kilmer was surrounded by rumours and mostly
the ones related to his health condition. Only in his recent memoir titled "I'm Your
Huckleberry", the Top Gun actor spoke for the first time so candidly about his battle
with throat cancer.
Even though the Hollywood sweetheart is now free of cancer, he's lost his regular voice
and, as Val said jokingly in his recent interview, he misses (quote) "that I didn't laugh like
a pirate".
Another huge part of Kilmer's book is dedicated to his gorgeous ex-partners. He confesses
to being a slave to love. He has dated numerous most admired females of Hollywood, but there
is one particular ex, who caused the greatest heartache of all for Kilmer.
In order to understand Kilmer and his relationships better, let us get back to his golden years
in Hollywood, and specifically: his notoriously bad reputation at that time.
Most of the stories revolve around his behaviour in the mid-90s.
During the first day of the filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau, cast members and the
crew testified to Kilmer's bullying, and his consistently hostile and obstructive manner.
He would not deliver the dialogues as scripted, and repeatedly criticized the director's ideas.
The initial director of the film was blamed by the studio for his inability to get Kilmer
under control and was even fired in three days. The
new director, John Frankenheimer, also had arguments with Kilmer on-set. He would later
state he didn't like Val's work ethics and didn't want to be associated with him ever
again. Moreover, there was antipathy between co-stars Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer that
rapidly escalated into open hostility.
The Batman Forever director called Kilmer (quote) "childish and impossible". And these
are just a few instances to prove the point.
The other side of the same coin was that the actor was always recognized for being too
passionate about his roles. Take his iconic portrayal of Jim Morrison: the young star
took the whole year just to prepare for the part. His commitment to roles made him want
to interfere with the movie-making process, which eventually contributed to his reputation
of an actor who is impossible to work with.
Years and years later Kilmer would say he regretted the attitude that earned him that
infamy saying he liked taking risks while working on the movie and didn't care about
any financial issues or other responsibilities associated with it.
"I didn't do enough hand-holding and flattering and reassuring to the financiers. I only cared
about the acting and that didn't translate to caring about the film or all that money."
Aside from hot career, Kilmer was also enjoying his equally hot personal life. The list of
his famous girlfriends includes Cher, Cindy Crawford and Angelina Jolie.
Singer Cher, who was his 13 years senior, described Kilmer as a great kisser saying:
"When we kissed, I thought my head would shoot right off my body."
Interestingly, it was also Cher who 30 years after their split, was there for him as a
good friend to help Kilmer fight cancer.
In the late 80s Kilmer married actress Joanne Whalley, the couple had two children but got
divorced in 1996. According to Whalley, her husband left the family as he decided to focus
on his career, their youngest child was just a baby then. She also accused him of leaving
them homeless forcing her to live in hotels or at friends with two little kids.
Kilmer did focus on his career and on dating other women, as well. After his divorce, he
dated Cindy Crawford and fell for her like crazy. He remembers:
"I thought I could have died from her love because its delight was simply too much to
bear."
Although her global career made a long-term relationship difficult, Val credits Cindy
with helping him learn to be happy again.
Then he met Angelina Jolie on the set of his 2004 movie, Alexander - they reportedly had
a brief romantic relationship just a year before the actress filmed Mr and Mrs Smith
with Brad Pitt.
In his memoir, Val confesses he couldn't wait to kiss Angelina during the filming.
"I couldn't wait to kiss Angie, buy her a Gulfstream jet and have a V+J painted in rainbow
glory on the tail."
And even more than that: he told director Oliver Stone he would only accept the role
if his and Jolie's characters (quote) "could have flashbacks to falling hard for each other
and storming the castle with passion, before turning against each other."
Kilmer seems to be having only the sweetest memories of his ex dates and expresses gratitude
towards them for being part of his life. But there is one woman who he has never got over…
and it is not his ex-wife or Angelina Jolie. That woman is actress Daryl Hannah.
The two dated between 2001 and 2002 after working together in the film 'In God We Trust'.
Even though it was one of his brief romances, Kilmer has revealed in his memoir that he
was left devastated after their break up.
"I knew I would love her with my whole heart forever and that love has lost none of its
strength. I am still in love with Daryl. When we finally broke up, I cried every single
day for half a year".
The 60-year-old confesses his love for Hannah remains intact and that their split was the
most painful of all.
Even now, addressing her marriage to singer Neil Young, Kilmer says, "Neil Young, I always
loved you, but I'm afraid I hate you now."
Reminiscing about his relationships, Kilmer says that he's (quote) "always found women
infinitely more interesting than men".
The actor, who is set to reprise his role in The Top Gun sequel, has made a candid revelation
regarding the latest years, and even decades, of his life, saying:
'I haven't had a girlfriend in 20 years… I'm very shy. I've tried to live a quiet life
out in New Mexico despite all my famous girlfriends of the past… The truth is I am lonely part
of every day"
The interesting part is that technically, Kilmer has been linked to other women within
these 20 years. For example, Val was last pictured with not someone but Winona Ryder
in 2005. His reported romances with Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie fall into this period,
as well. So what is it when he says he hasn't had a girlfriend in 20 years?
Apparently, the countdown starts from around the time of his split with Daryl Hannah. And
it is likely that Val did not consider his other romantic relationships as committed.
Either it is true for Kilmer who has stayed in love with Hannah, or this statement has
some other explanations that we are yet to hear.
Despite being a Hollywood heartthrob, Kilmer seemed to be as private as possible about
his personal issues throughout his whole life. Before the release of his memoir in 2020,
there had been a lot of rumours about the actor, but pretty nothing officially announced.
This is why the new book is also of special interest to Kilmer's fans.
For some time, Kilmer denied the rumours about having cancer. In 2016, it was his ex co-star
Michael Douglas who said during a public event that Val is (quote) "dealing with exactly
what I had" and that (quote again) "things don't look too good for him." However, Kilmer
kept denying all the information about him not being well. It was only in 2017 when he
spoke up about his diagnosis and got back to Douglas's comment:
"He was probably trying to help me 'cause press probably asked where I was these days,
and I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen altho healing all
the time."
Now, the former Batman has been cancer-free for 4 years - and that is first-hand information.
He is on good terms with his grownup kids and is actively filming again.
Of course, we are all looking forward to the Top Gun sequel release. Interestingly, Kilmer
didn't even want to be part of the1986 Top Gun movie, the story didn't interest him at
all. The agent basically forced him to audition for the role of Iceman. To his own surprise,
he got that part and probably to even bigger surprise - it earned him huge recognition.
Decades later, the tables turned and Kilmer was not even tapped to reprise his role as
Iceman. He confesses he'd begged the producers to give him a chance and it worked.
"The producers went for it. Cruise went for it. Cruise couldn't have been cooler. … Tom
and I took up where we left off. The reunion felt great."
We can only hope the Top Gun film will become a life changer for Val Kilmer as it already
happened over 35 years ago. And we also hope the 60-year-old actor is yet to meet the true
love of his life he has been looking for all these years.
Wait! We are not done yet. We have a fun fact about Val for those who have watched the video
till the end.
Kilmer was originally offered the lead role in "Dirty Dancing" released in1987. He turned
it down because he didn't want to obtain the image of a "hunk" in Hollywood. That image
rightfully went to Patrick Swayze. But guess what? Kilmer, with his radiant looks and natural
charisma, also couldn't escape being tagged Hollywood handsome. Probably, the actor feared
that hunks don't get appreciated for their acting skills. But that was not true either
for Swayze, or for Kilmer.
Still, it is a common opinion that Kilmer's talent was overlooked at some point. Many
criticized the Academy over not nominating Kilmer for Oscar in the category Best Supporting
Actor in Tombstone. Tommy Lee Jones was the deserved winner for The Fugitive that year,
but everyone agreed that Val Kilmer deserved at least a nomination.
That's all for today! And don't forget to push that subscribe button!