The tabloids are now playing catch up with Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber’s breakup, which was handled admirably well in the press. In case you missed it, they released a joint statement almost two weeks ago in which they said that they’re splitting but that they still have love and respect for each other. There were a few well-placed source quotes in the major outlets stating that they’ve had problems for a while, but that’s it. Plus they did it in the wake of the Brangelina split and waited until after they were done promoting their projects and the awards ceremonies had wrapped. Star Magazine called the breakup back in January and they seemed to have some insider information about the state of their relationship. (Maybe the paparazzi tipped them off that the two were living apart.) Now that it’s actually happened it’s more of the same from the tabloids, along with whispers that Liev was cheating on Naomi. I don’t doubt that could have happened but we haven’t heard any details about that and so far it’s just rumors. (There’s a 2011 story from The Dirty which has specifics, but that one has been denied by the alleged other woman.) You would think that someone would come out of the woodwork with a story, but there’s nothing. Here’s Star’s report and it’s vague:
“The possibility of Liev straying has been eating away at Naomi for years,” a family insider tells Star. “There have been a number of rumors about him cheating throughout their relationship, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Naomi felt in her heart that he’d been unfaithful, and she turned a bling eye for the sake of their children, but it’s finally come to a head.”
[From Star Magazine, print edition]
Then the National Enquirer takes it too far by claiming that Naomi was jealous of Liev’s on-air romps as Ray Donovan. Their source claims “Naomi couldn’t get past the fact that Liev was always dallying with the hot women who were his co-stars.” He’s acting and Naomi is an actress too, I’m sure she understands. While I’m annoyed with the number of women who throw themselves at his character that’s not necessarily on Liev. He has a lot of control over the show as we learned in his Esquire profile but I don’t know how far that extends and regardless that’s fiction which shouldn’t reflect on him.
I’m still somewhat broken up over this because I just loved these two together. They handled it well, the tabloids are covering them without nailing down any details, and I’ll say what I’ve said to date about these two: I like that they’re keeping their lives private. Part of that is that there’s not a lot of interest in them, but they’ve cultivated that lack of interest as well.
Naomi celebrated her birthday just a couple of days after the split was announced. Liev commented on her birthday post on Instagram “Happy Birthday Sweetheart.” Then, Naomi posted this nice message for Liev’s birthday just six days later.
Naomi Watts is shown on the set of Gypsy. Credit: FameFlynet and WENN.com
