Jennifer Meyer opened up about her divorce from Tobey Maguire and how they built a strong friendship after separating in 2016.
Meyer appeared on The Inside Edit podcast Monday with host Maeve Reilly. The jewelry designer explained how Gwyneth Paltrow helped her understand that divorcing could benefit their family.
“It was not easy every day, and I’m sure he would say the same thing,” Meyer said, noting that she now considers Maguire “my best friend.”
The former couple married in 2007 and separated in 2016. Meyer filed for divorce in 2020. They share daughter Ruby, 19, and son Otis, 16.
Meyer called her divorce “one of my greatest teachers, because it teaches you patience.”
She remembered the challenges of co-parenting during difficult years. “Our daughter was 10 or something. Those are some intense times that you need to stay connected. And then we had a son who was 7,” she said.
“It’s like you’re raising kids at an intense time. But he is wonderful and I got lucky for that. And my life – it was not easy every day, and I’m sure he would say the same thing, 100 percent, and we definitely had to overcome some big hurdles.”
Learning from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Approach
Meyer visited Paltrow’s Los Angeles home after the actress and Chris Martin “consciously uncoupled” in 2014. Meyer envied how well Paltrow and the Coldplay frontman worked as co-parents and friends.
Paltrow introduced Meyer to Dr. Habib Sadeghi for guidance on handling divorce.
“Everyone was making fun of conscious uncoupling at the time, but joke’s on them,” Meyer said. She called Sadeghi and told Maguire they needed couples therapy.
The approach worked.
“I now have an ex-husband who is my best friend and would do anything for me, and I would do anything for him,” she said. “Anything in the world.”
A Blended Family That Works
Reilly agreed that Maguire is “supportive and lovely and the best dad.”
Meyer praised her ex-husband as “the best dad, the best ex-husband, the best friend, the most generous.” She said Maguire and her fiancé Geoffrey Ogunlesi “love each other so much.”
The blended family dynamic became especially clear during January’s Los Angeles wildfires. Meyer, Ogunlesi and her two children stayed with Maguire and one of his friends.
“It was the greatest,” she said. “Every day I would walk in and I’d be like, ‘I’m so lucky,’ and then I’d come home at night and Tobey and Geoff and his best friend would be watching a movie on the couch. I’d be like ‘How? This is a dream.'”
Meyer’s story shows how former spouses can build successful co-parenting relationships with the right approach and professional help.
