When news broke earlier this week that Barbie co-writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach tied the knot, many fans were thrilled. “Best wishes to the newlyweds,” one fan wrote on X. But, between the best wishes and happy messages, tweets and TikToks alike started raising eyebrows about the couple’s messy beginnings.
To understand the drama that has the internet buzzing, let’s backtrack a little. Baumbach and Gerwig first met on the set of 2010’s Greenberg, per People. The movie, which Baumbach directed, was co-written by Baumbach and his first wife, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, and starred both Leigh and Gerwig.
And while we may never know what happened in the behind-the-scenes of the movie, Leigh and Baumbach, who had been married since 2005, split when Leigh filed for divorce in 2010 shortly after the movie wrapped, per Distractify.
In the filing, Leigh claimed their split was due to “irreconcilable differences.” At the time, the couple also shared a 7-month-old son, Rohmer, who Leigh requested physical custody of, E! News reports.
According to Us Weekly, Baumbach and Gerwig remained in contact after the divorce and began officially dating sometime in 2011. In 2012, the two co-wrote their first film together, Frances Ha, which Gerwig starred and Baumbach directed.
“What I didn’t know is that Greta was this incredible writer, I mean, I had a feeling she’d be a great collaborator, but that writing really was kind of her thing when she was in college, and so I really lucked out,” Baumbach told Variety at the time. “It was amazing.”
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In 2013, Baumbach’s divorce from Leigh was finalized.
And while Baumbach’s dating history might be a simple story of two separate relationships with no overlap, things get even more interesting when considering his work.
In 2019, also the year he welcomed his first child with Gerwig, Baumbach wrote and directed the movie The Marriage Story, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. The movie tells the story of a breakdown of a family between artistic couple Charlie and Nicole and their 8-year-old son, Henry. Sound familiar? In the story, in addition to their fading connection, Charlie also cheats on Nicole with a member of the theater company.
“It’s a work of fiction, but it is extremely personal at the same time,” Baumbach told the New York Times ahead of the release. He then revealed he showed his ex-wife Leigh a final cut of the movie to let her know what was coming. “I didn’t have any concerns about it, and she really liked it, because it isn’t about our marriage,” Baumbach once again assured. “That’s not to say that there aren’t emotional connections, things that happened to me emotionally that are going to be translated in some way into this story, but I think that’s true for every writer who’s gone through breakups or been in love.”
So there you have it, a full timeline of the Baumbach, Gerwig and Leigh drama. And whether you leave this wishing the newlyweds the best, or wondering what really happened on the set of Greenberg, know that they all seem to have buried the hatchet and become healthy co-parents now. Talk about a modern family!
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples who have stayed together after cheating scandals.
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