Burton and Bellucci Call It Quits After Three Years
After a romance spanning almost three years, filmmaker Tim Burton and Italian star Monica Bellucci have announced their separation.
In a joint statement released to the AFP on Friday, September 19, the former couple stated, “Monica Bellucci and Tim Burton have chosen to go their separate ways, maintaining profound respect and genuine affection for one another.”
In 2023, Bellucci, age 60, disclosed that her relationship with Burton, age 67, began following her casting in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. (Burton is well-known for directing the original Beetlejuice in 1988, a film whose follow-up was released in cinemas in 2024.)
“Above all, I'm simply happy to have crossed paths with this man,” Bellucci shared with Elle France in an interview featured in June 2023. “It’s a connection that doesn’t come around often in life … I know him as a person, I care for him, and now I’m about to experience him as a director – a new chapter is unfolding.”
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During that period, the actress also expressed her excitement about taking on the role of Delores LaFerve in the Beetlejuice follow-up.
“I have affection for Tim, and immense admiration for Tim Burton,” she further commented.
The couple, Bellucci and Burton, first appeared publicly together on the red carpet in October 2023 at the Rome Film Festival, attending the premiere of her film Maria Callas: Lettere e Memorie.
The following year, Bellucci provided additional details regarding their courtship.
“For me, I am with Tim. Not Tim Burton the filmmaker, but Tim, the individual I adore,” she shared with Paris Match in June 2024.
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Bellucci had previously been wed to her Irreversible fellow actor Vincent Cassel between 1999 and 2013, a period during which they had two children. Burton, meanwhile, has two children with his former partner, Helena Bonham Carter.
“My divorce was an extremely difficult experience,” Bonham Carter, 59, recounted on the “Therapy Works” podcast in 2022, referring to her 2014 split. “It was an extended process. That’s the crucial point; it’s not so clear-cut. It truly never concludes.”
She elaborated, “When you divorce someone, it still functions like a form of marriage if you share children. The dynamic of the relationship must adapt. Navigating child-sharing arrangements is incredibly complex.”
Bonham Carter and Burton, known for their numerous professional collaborations, were a couple from 2001 to 2014, although they never formally tied the knot.
“I wished to wear attire that would signal to others that I wasn't my usual self. I was grieving, and undergoing a rebuilding phase,” the former Crown star reflected on the podcast concerning the conclusion of their partnership. “A uniform for mourning should be reinstated, as it communicates to people that you are not yourself, and shouldn't be expected to be.”
