Ethan Hawke gave rare insight into his 2003 split from Uma Thurman in a new cover interview with GQ Hype published Monday.
The Blue Moon actor called the media coverage of their relationship and breakup “humiliating.”
“It’s humiliating. It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things.”
Hawke, 54, and Thurman, 55, married in 1998 after meeting on the set of their 1997 sci-fi film Gattaca. They separated in 2003 and finalized their divorce in 2005.
The former couple shares two children: daughter Maya, 27, and son Levon, 23.
When asked about actors falling for each other during movie projects, Hawke compared the experience to a game of Spin the Bottle.
“There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling.”
For Hawke, falling in love on set “turns the temperature up in your life” and can feel “like falling in love at summer camp.”
“It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.”
Hawke remarried in 2008 to Ryan Shawhughes. The couple has two daughters: Indiana, 14, and Clementine, 17.
Thurman was previously married to Gary Oldman before her marriage to Hawke. She later dated financier Arpad Busson and welcomed daughter Luna with him in July 2012. That relationship ended in 2014.
Following her divorce from Hawke, Thurman told Parade magazine in 2006 that she wouldn’t criticize her children’s father publicly.
“I cannot participate in anything critical about my children’s father. I just need to keep peace.”
She added at the time: “I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t said one mean thing, and I’m not going to start now. It’s terrible for my family.”
