Ethan Hawke Opens Up About His Relationship With Uma Thurman—and Hints at What Caused Their Split

Ask any millennial about a celebrity breakup that impacted them, and odds are they’ll name Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, who split in 2003. Both Ethan and Uma have (somehow) managed to keep their co-parenting relationship private over the years, but in a recent interview, Ethan reflected on his relationship with Uma and hinted at what might have caused the split.

“Have you ever played Spin the Bottle?” Ethan told GQ when asked about falling in love with Uma on the set of 1997's Gattaca. “There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life.”

He continued, suggesting that he and Uma—who were married from 1998 to 2005 and share two children, actors Maya Hawke and Levon Thurman-Hawke—weren’t as compatible off-set as they were on. “It can be like falling in love at summer camp,” he explained. “It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.”

Another thing that probably didn’t help their relationship was the tabloid attention. At the time of their marriage, Uma and Ethan were both major stars on the rise, and thus, one of tabloid magazine's favorite couples. “It’s humiliating,” Ethan told GQ of the obsessive media attention. “It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things.”

For her part, Uma felt a similar distaste for her marriage becoming a tabloid headline. “If I see one more headline about it, I’ll gag,” she told Parade in 2006, per E! News. “I’m just another American woman who was in an unfulfilled marriage that fell apart.”

It’s safe to say that both Ethan and Uma have moved on since their split. Hawke has been married to Ryan Shawhughes since 2008, and the two share two daughters. Meanwhile, Uma has had a few public relationships and welcomed a daughter with ex Arpad Busson in 2012.