Laura Dern’s Love Life Through the Years—From Sweet Costar Romances to Finding Freedom After Divorce
From rock stars to A-listers, Laura Dern’s love life has been as bold as her roles
Laura Dern has been one of Hollywood’s brightest stars since her teen years in the ’80s. The award-winning actress from movies like Blue Velvet, Jurassic Park and Wild and shows like Big Little Lies and Twin Peaks: The Return is beloved for her dramatic range and expressiveness, and her personal life is nearly as captivating as her onscreen roles. Here’s a look at Dern’s relationships, from her sweet costar romances to a rock star marriage to sexy singlehood.
Laura Dern’s on-set romances: From Kyle MacLachlan to Billy Bob Thornton
When Laura Dern was just 17, she had her breakout role in the surreal 1986 David Lynch thriller Blue Velvet. The film was pivotal in both her professional and personal life, as she began dating her costar, Kyle MacLachlan. Both actors had long working relationships with the late director, and they remained good friends years after their 1989 breakup. MacLachlan said that while their breakup was hard, “We’re great friends now, and I just adore her. She’s got the best sense of humor. She is smart, beautiful, empathic.”
Dern was then briefly linked to Nicolas Cage, her onscreen bad-boy love interest in Lynch’s next film, the 1990 lovers-on-the-run story Wild at Heart.
Dern also dated director Renny Harlin, who was a producer of her 1991 Great Depression-set drama Rambling Rose. The actress’ performance in the film earned her her first Oscar nomination.
During the filming of one of the biggest movies of her career, the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park, Dern got together with her onscreen colleague, Jeff Goldblum. The pair became engaged in 1995, but broke up in 1997. They have remained friendly, and they both reprised their iconic roles in the 2022 franchise installment Jurassic World Dominion. Looking back at the highs and lows of their relationship, Dern said, “Goldblum and myself, we held we’d be respectful and loving to each other in the media and there’s no other way to do it.”
After her breakup with Goldblum, Dern dated another quirky leading man, Billy Bob Thornton. They were reportedly engaged, but it didn’t last, as he abruptly left her for Angelina Jolie and married her in 2000. As Dern recalled, “I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I’ve never heard from him again.” In a case of awkward timing, the film Daddy and Them, which Thornton wrote, directed and starred in and which Dern acted in, was shot in 1998 and not released until 2001—and by that point, Thornton and Jolie were official, and the scandalous couple was all over the tabloids.
Laura Dern’s musical marriage to Ben Harper
In 2000, Dern met Grammy-winner Ben Harper at one of his concerts, and the movie star and the musician quickly became an item. She gave birth to their son, Ellery, now a model and musician, in 2001 and their daughter, Jaya, who has dabbled in acting and activism, in 2004.
Dern and Harper married in 2005 and divorced in 2013. In 2020, the year Dern won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a divorce lawyer in Marriage Story, the actress reflected on how going through her own divorce informed her performance, saying, “we’re so privileged to redefine what family looks like.”
Dern also said she found a new sense of freedom after her divorce. As she put it, “This moment in my life is so sexy and freeing because I’ve had many relationships, I’ve had a marriage, I have my amazing children, so I’m not hiding who I am to get somebody who is willing to have kids or be married.”
Laura Dern’s more recent relationships
While Dern was frequently photographed with her A-list ’90s boyfriends, she’s kept her personal life fairly private since her divorce. In 2015, Dern was linked to actor and rapper Common, who played her boyfriend in the 2018 film The Tale, though she was coy about whether or not they dated, saying, “Common is a beautiful man, so I’m happy to know him and be friends with him for years now. But rumors will fly and people say what they’re going to say.”
In 2017, Dern was seen engaging in PDA with basketball player Baron Davis. She was also rumored to be dating Bradley Cooper, though she said they were just “amazing friends.”
Currently, Dern isn’t publicly dating anyone, but she’s said, “Love means a lot to me, and I love loving and I love boys,” and noted that when it comes to what she’s looking for in a relationship, “Maybe I should get a checklist—I’ve never had one. But love always redefines itself, doesn’t it? What really changes is that the priority in a relationship becomes fierce honesty and comfort with oneself. That becomes really sexy. As opposed to, ‘I’m going to put this mask on and pretend I’m this person.’”
Whether or not Laura Dern is in a relationship currently, there’s no denying that she’s one of the most talented actresses around, and it’s clear that the chemistry she had with many of her costars was very real.
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