Meryl Streep and Don Gummer separated after 45 years of marriage

Meryl Streep is the most Oscar-nominated actress ever, with 21 nominations. She was married to sculptor Don Gummer for over four decades. Streep has had a great career, and her husband has always been there for her. They split up and lived separately for six years. Meryl Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey, on June 22, 1949. Her parents were Mary Wilkinson Streep and Harry William Streep Jr. She has two younger brothers, Harry and Dana, who became actors. Donald James Gummer was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 12, 1946, two and a half years earlier. His parents were Dorothy Ann and William Gummer, and he and his five brothers grew up in Indiana. In 1963, the Streep family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where Meryl attended high school. In 1969, Meryl attended Vassar College. She acted in her first serious play, Miss Julie, and learned to imitate accents and memorize lines. In 1975, Meryl appeared in five plays at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference. In 1978, Robert De Niro suggested she play his girlfriend in The Deer Hunter, which also starred her partner, John Cazale. John was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1977. Michael Cimino filmed his Deer Hunter scenes early, but John didn't live to see it released. John Cazale died on March 13, 1978, with Meryl Streep by his side. He was 42. Meryl started hanging out with Don. She liked him. They married on September 30, 1978, in an Episcopal ceremony in her parents' garden in Connecticut. Later, Meryl and Don had a boy. Henry Gummer was born on November 13, 1979. In June 1985, Meryl and Don moved their family into a $1.8-million estate in Salisbury, Connecticut. Years later, Streep told Australia's Sydney Morning Herald that her 25 years in Connecticut were happy. On May 9, 1986, Streep gave birth to her third daughter, Grace Gummer. In 1990, Meryl, Don, Henry, Mamie, and Grace moved to a $3 million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles. However, Don, Meryl, and the kids found LA too hectic. On June 12, 1991, Meryl had a daughter named Louisa. In the 1990s, Don Gummer used metal and stained glass in his sculptures. Don and Meryl appeared together at the 2018 Academy Awards. Meryl was nominated for her 21st Oscar for The Post. In October 2023, the couple said they had been separated for six years but were still married. The news that they had split up surprised friends, fans, and journalists. Don and Meryl were soulmates from the start, but their 45-year marriage is over. They separated amicably and remained close to their four children. They haven't said why they split up, but it's thought they just grew apart. Meryl and Don's four children are artists, too. With those genes, who can blame them? Henry Wolfe became a singer-songwriter and actor. All three girls are actors, too. Meryl and Don became grandparents. Their middle daughter, actress Mamie, and her husband, Mehar Sethi, welcomed two children. Henry Gummer and his wife, Tamryn, had a daughter, Ida June, in 2020 and a son, Quinn William, in 2022. In early 2023, Grace and her husband, Mark Ronson, had a baby girl. Since becoming a grandmother, Meryl has played Aunt March in Little Women, Alice Hughes in Let Them All Talk, Dee Dee Allen in The Prom, and President Janie Orlean in Don't Look Up.