Julia Roberts celebrates 20 years of marriage to her husband Daniel Moder in 2022, and they’ve had their fair share of drama getting there.
The couple met in early 2000, while the Oscar-winning actor was filming The Mexican with Brad Pitt.
When they first met, Julia Roberts was dating actor Benjamin Bratt, while cinematographer Daniel was married to partner Vera Steimberg.
After Moder completed his divorce from Steimberg in 2002, he married Julia in the summer of that year at her ranch in New Mexico.
Julia later said that she wasn’t the cause of the couple’s split, but stories surrounded her for several years. Here’s a full timeline of the couple’s relationship.
Pre-2000: Early relationships and marriages
Before her first marriage, Julia Roberts was briefly engaged to actor Kiefer Sutherland, but they broke up in 1991 just days before their wedding.
In 1993, she married country singer Lyle Lovett, whom she met just three weeks before their wedding ceremony. However, they split in 1995.
2002: Officially together
Julia and Moder were an official item by 2002, with reports claiming they had been romantically close for a couple of years.
The actor denied claims that she was the cause of Moder’s split, saying in 2003: “He sorted his whole thing out, separate and apart from me.
“And I sorted my life out, separate and apart from him. I think that’s the only reason we were able to ultimately fall in love with each other and be together.”
She had also been romantically linked to actors Dylan McDermott, Matthew Perry, Jason Patric and Liam Neeson.
2000: First meeting
Julia Roberts first met Moder on the set of The Mexican, where he was working as a cameraman.
“He makes me feel my most comfortable self,” she said of her partner to Oprah Winfrey in 2003. “I don’t alter myself in any way.”
2002: A break-up emerges
Reports claim that Pretty Woman star Julia had caused the breakup of Moder’s first marriage.
She was photographed wearing a DIY T-shirt that read ‘A Low Vera’ – with reports claiming it was a nod to Moder’s first wife Vera.
When asked in 2003 why she wore the shirt, she replied: “It was private. I stand by my T-shirt.”
When asked in the same interview if she was responsible for Moder’s divorce, she replied: “I’m an easy person to point the finger at — ‘she did it’ — and I see that. I don’t begrudge people the easy finger-point. It just doesn’t happen to be so.”
2002: Wedding bells
The couple got married on July 4, 2002, in a top-secret ceremony held at Julia’s ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
Guests were asked only to come “celebrate Independence Day” with the couple at the time.
2004: A cute arrival
The couple welcomed twins Phinnaeus and Hazel in late 2004, after two years of marriage.
2007: A third child
Their third kid, Henry, was born in 2007.
Julia later said that her children don’t really know how famous she is, telling Harper’s Bazaar in 2018: “I don’t think they will ever have a true sense of that.
“When they were starting to figure it out, it was like, ‘You’re famous?’ And I said, ‘I think a lot of people might have seen the movie that I’m in or might know who I am.’ Maybe an hour goes by. ‘Are you more famous than Taylor Swift?'”
2015: Still working together
Julia and Moder have worked together on a number of projects, and Julia credited her husband for helping her perfect her role in The Secret in Their Eyes.
“We’ve done a number of things together, and it’s always kind of nerve-wracking for me because he’s my husband and I want him to think I’m awesome,” she said.
“But this was a collaboration where I realized that if he hadn’t been there I don’t think I could have fashioned together the performance that I wanted to.”
2018: Strong as ever
When speaking on Gwyneth Paltrow’s podcast, Julia Roberts talked about how strong her marriage was after 16 years.
“He truly, to this day, to this minute is just my favourite human,” she said.
“I’m more interested in what he has to say or his point of view just than anybody. Really, we’re so lucky in that way. We just really, really like each other and we just enjoy each other’s company.”
