Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were one of the most well-known celebrity couples of the 1990s and early 2000s, with countless magazine and newspaper articles devoted to them.
Thurman, an undeniable It girl at the time thanks to her role in Pulp Fiction, and Hawke, who rose to fame in Dead Poets Society and Reality Bites, met and fell in love on a film set.
After they reunited this week for the wedding of their daughter, let’s look back on their relationship and marriage, which produced two children, before their spectacular split that caused a media storm.
Early lives
Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, but spent two years of her early life in India, with her father, who was a Buddhist monk. Her mother was a former model.
She started acting while at school, and at 14 she was discovered by talent scouts while in a school production of The Crucible.
At 15, she dropped out of school to work as a model before she made her film debut in the 1987 film, Kiss Daddy Goodnight.
This led to roles in films including Johnny Be Good, Dangerous Liaisons and Pulp Fiction (1994).
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Ethan Green Hawke was born in Austin, Texas, on November 6, 1970. His parents were high school sweethearts who married when his mother was 17, and divorced when he was four.
Hawke showed an interest in acting at a young age, appearing in a theatre production and high school plays before winning a role in the film Explorers, starring River Phoenix, when he was 14.
After school, he studied acting at university but left when he won a role in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.
He became a star thanks to his role in the 1994 film Reality Bites, opposite Winona Ryder.
First meeting
Hawke and Thurman met in 1996 on the set of the science fiction film Gattaca.
Hawke discussed why actors were prone to falling in love on set during a 2025 interview with GQ.
“Have you ever played spin the bottle?” he asked.
“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.”
But fall in love they did, and just a year after filming commenced they married on May 1, 1998, when Uma was expecting their first child.
They welcomed Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke on July 8, 1998.
She was followed by a brother, Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke on January 15, 2002.
Announcement of split
The pair announced their separation in 2003.
Almost immediately, rumours began to swirl that Hawke had been unfaithful.
He told the US ABC show 20/20 in 2004, he was horrified that their breakup caused a media sensation.
“It’s like this is our marriage… and now there’s all these other voices in the room,” he said.
“You know, you hate to have your grandfather read about it.
“That’s what makes you feel ashamed.”
Affair rumours
Hawke addressed media reports he had an affair with a much younger model while shooting a film in Montreal.
“Uma and I did not split up over anybody’s infidelity,” he said.
“We had a lot of problems before I ever went to Montreal.”
He also hinted that their successful careers had taken a toll.
“You know you’d come up with these rules: ‘One person works, the other person doesn’t’. Well, then somebody’s always out of town,” he said.
The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2005.
That year, Thurman spoke about the marriage ending during an appearance on Oprah, and seemed to hint Hawke was to blame.
“I’d read that there was some betrayal of some kind. Was there?” asked Winfrey.
“There was some stuff like that at the end,” Thurman said.
“We were having a difficult time, and you know how the axe comes down and how people behave and how people express their unhappiness.
“Our marriage failed.
“I should take full responsibility for the failure of my own marriage.”
In the same interview, she described the split as “excruciating” and admitted it was hard to speak to her ex.
“You can move on, and you can be lucky and you can seize the moment and you can take one step after another,” she said.
“You bear two children with somebody – that’s not a small thing – and then you can hardly talk to them.
“I think that that’s such a priority to protect them and to never lose sight of the fact that even if you’re in a fight, or even if things are going badly, it’s in their best interests that everybody comes out OK.
“He’s made an effort, and I try to make an effort and, you know, we just keep trying.
“We don’t have a lot of personal chats about how we’re doing. There’s a lot of unfinished damage and baggage and stuff that’s still in the way.”
In 2025, Hawke told GQ he found interest in the marriage breakup humiliating.
“It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things,” Hawke, 54, said of the news coverage of his split.
Moving on
Soon after, it was revealed Hawke was in a relationship with Ryan Shawhughes, a Columbia University graduate who had previously worked for the former couple as a nanny.
News of their relationship brought more unwelcome headlines and accusations, despite Hawke’s claims the relationship only began a year after his divorce.
He further claimed the end of his marriage was unrelated to Shawhughes, whom he went on to marry in June 2008.
They welcomed two children together: Clementine, who was born in July 2008, a month after they married, and Indiana, three years later.
The couple remains married, but in 2014, Hawke again set tongues wagging when he made a series of comments about infidelity.
“People have such a childish view of monogamy and fidelity,” he said during an interview with online retailer Mr Porter.
“‘He’s cheated so he’s bad, she’s cheated so she’s bad’, as opposed to a recognition that our species is not monogamous.
“My relationship with my present wife is thrilling to me and I’m committed to it. But neither she nor I know what shape the future will come in.
“Sexual fidelity can’t be the whole thing you hang your relationship on.
“If you really love somebody you want them to grow, but you don’t get to define how that happens. They do.”
Meanwhile, Thurman also moved on, first with US businessman and hotel owner André Balazs.
The couple initially dated from 2003 to 2007, and were engaged at one point.
After they broke up, Thurman dated financier Arpad Busson, who was previously in a long-term relationship with Elle Macpherson, which produced two sons.
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They started dating in 2007, and announced their engagement in June 2008. They called off the engagement a year later, but reconciled.
Together they welcomed daughter Luna Thurman-Busson in July 2012 but split again in April 2014, resulting in a messy child custody battle lasting several years.
She and former flame Balazs rekindled their relationship in 2014 but split again in 2015.
Reunion
Earlier this week, Hawke and Thurman reunited for the wedding of their daughter Maya, an actress who stars in Stranger Things, to musician Christian Lee Hutson.
Photos showed Maya strolling down the streets of New York in her wedding dress with her father while her mother was pictured nearby.
It was said to be a rare occurrence for the former couple to spend time together now that their two children are adults.
But with a marriage, and possibly one day grandchildren to welcome, it may be that they will need to find a way to finally put the past behind them, even if just for their children’s sake.
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