Ethan Hawke’s Marriages: From a ’90s Power Couple With Uma Thurman to Working Behind the Scenes With His Current Wife, Ryan Hawke
See what the handsome star had to say about the rumors surrounding his divorce and finding new love
Key Takeaways
- Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman were married from 1998 to 2005, and their divorce made headlines.
- Hawke married his second wife, Ryan Shawhughes, who was his children's nanny, in 2008.
- Hawke has two kids, actors Maya and Levon, with Thurman, and two kids with his current wife.
Ethan Hawke has long been acclaimed for his powerful screen presence in everything from Gen X favorites like Reality Bites and the Before Trilogy to thought-provoking independent films like First Reformed and Blue Moon to blockbusters like Dead Poets Society and Training Day. He’s just as charismatic offscreen as he is on it, and his personal life has long been a source of public fascination.
Hawke and his first wife, fellow movie star Uma Thurman, became one of the power couples that defined ’90s cool, and their messy 2005 divorce came as a shock. Since 2008, he’s been married to Ryan Hawke, who has served as a producer on many of his projects. Read on to learn all about the highs and lows of his two high-profile marriages and see what he’s said about them.
Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman: From costars to ’90s It Couple to a scandalous divorce
Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman met on the set of the 1997 science fiction film Gattaca and soon became an item. They married in 1998, and their daughter, Stranger Things actress Maya Hawke, was born that year. Their son Levon arrived in 2002, and like his sister, he followed his parents into acting, most recently appearing in Marty Supreme.
Hawke and Thurman dazzled at premieres and award shows, becoming fixtures on the red carpet throughout the late ’90s and early ’00s. In 2001, they costarred in the indie movie Tape and Thurman starred in Chelsea Walls, Hawke’s directorial debut. While Hawke and Thurman were both A-listers, they maintained an artsy sensibility, frequently working in independent films and choosing to live in New York rather than L.A. When they announced their split in 2003, fans were surprised to see the seemingly low-key couple come to such a dramatic end, as Thurman accused Hawke of infidelity and there were rumors that he’d been having an affair with their children’s nanny.
Hawke and Thurman’s divorce was finalized in 2005, marking the end of one of Hollywood’s most beloved partnerships. Years later, in a 2025 GQ interview, he looked back at when he and his ex became tabloid fodder, observing, “It’s humiliating. It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things,” and he recalled the giddy feeling of falling in love on set, saying, “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. It can be 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.”
Ethan and Ryan Hawke: From rumors to a long marriage filled with creative collaborations
Ethan Hawke married his current wife, Ryan Shawhughes, in 2008. They met during his first marriage, when she briefly worked as a nanny for their two kids, which naturally led to speculation in the wake of their split. In 2009, he told The Guardian, “I met Ryan through my literary agent, and she was indeed one of Maya and Levon’s nannies during a film shoot. After a short period of working for me, Ryan went back to Columbia to get her degree. There were never any scandalous thoughts or actions back then. In the years that followed, my marriage disintegrated due to many pressures, none of which were remotely connected to Ryan.”
The Hawkes have two teenage daughters, Clementine and Indiana. Ethan and Ryan work together frequently, as she’s the vice president of his production company, Under the Influence Productions, and has produced a variety of his movies and shows over the past decade, including First Reformed, The Good Lord Bird, The Last Movie Stars and The Lowdown. Outside of working with her husband, Ryan serves on the board of EngenderHealth, an organization dedicated to women’s health and gender equality.
In a 2025 interview with The Times, Hawke reflected on finding love again after divorce, saying, “When I split up I was hellbent on not having any more kids and I wanted to be single for the rest of my life. But then I made a best friend and I liked kissing her.” In his interview with The Guardian, the five-time Oscar nominee quipped, “She has always been an extremely sensible, no-bulls–t woman, and frankly I thought that might be good for a half-madman like me.” While they initially had something of an opposites-attract dynamic, he said, “I love Ryan tremendously. The bottom line is we’re incredibly compatible.”
Ethan and Ryan Hawke’s marriage may have emerged in the wake of drama, but nearly 20 years later, the creatively collaborative couple appears to be in it for the long haul.
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