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Who: Two-time Oscar-nominated actress Scarlett Johansson, 38, and French journalist and art dealer Romain Dauriac, 41.
How They Met: Just one day after her split from ad executive Nate Naylor was announced, Scarlett was spotted having lunch with Romain at La Esquina in New York City in 2012. However, they likely met a year earlier when Scarlett was shooting Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.
“We met through friends in Paris. It was very romantic. And we became friends. When I’d come back to Paris I would see him. We started dating,” Johansson told Parade in 2015, before explaining that while they didn’t speak the same language, they didn’t have trouble communicating. “I felt like we were [always] talking the same language,” she added. “I thought his vocabulary was impressive! Maybe it was the language of love.”
Jeff Vespa/WireImage
As for what attracted her to Romain in the first place, Scarlett told the outlet: “His brain. He’s the smartest person I know. I was attracted to the way that he thinks, his sense of irony, how he looks at things … He’s funny.”
Romain was also one of the first non-celebrities Scarlett dated. Romain, a journalist and art dealer, wasn’t connected to the entertainment industry and didn’t know much about Scarlett's career before they became a couple. “Strangely, I don’t think he’d seen a lot of my work,” Johansson told Cosmopolitan back in 2016. “He knew who I was, but I wasn’t, like, his celebrity crush.”
With Romain being just your average guy, the two kept their relationship out of the spotlight, secretly marrying in 2014 — a month after welcoming their daughter, Rose Dorothy.
Why We Loved Them: While Scarlett publicly revealed that she likely wouldn’t get married again following her divorce from Ryan Reynolds in 2010, Romain changed her mind about the idea of marriage.
When asked about how she knew he was the one, she told Parade, “I remember one moment in particular, where I was really upset. Something had happened in my family and I was devastated. I was having a really intense conversation on the phone. Romain was right outside the door. I knew he heard everything. I had to take a break from the conversation. And I came into the living room, and I started crying. And he held me.”
Marc Piasecki/WireImage
She continued, “I gathered myself together and I went back in the other room and finished this intense conversation. We never talked about it after that. He comforted me. That was enough. I remember thinking there was a safety in that. I was accepted. There are moments like that that happen throughout our relationship as it grows and changes, moments where I feel reassured that he is still there for me.”
On another super-relatable note, they also watched ABC’s Shark Tank and once got into a disagreement during the show. "My husband had this idea for an app and was like, 'We should pitch this to Shark Tank!" she said while speaking with Cosmo. After Scarlett tried to talk him out of it, "He was like, ‘What? You mean it wouldn't pass the Sharks?' I was like, 'We’re not gonna get into a fight over this!'"
When They Peaked: Apparently, not all of Duariac’s business ideas were bad. In 2016, two launched their own popcorn brand, Yummy Pop, and opened a store dedicated to selling le pop corn in Paris’s Marais district.
Getty
The Breakup: After just a little over two years of marriage, Scarlett and Romain broke up in January 2017. The actress, who reportedly initiated the split, filed for divorce two months later, writing in court papers that their divorce was “irretrievably broken.”
Shortly after news of the divorce was made public, Scarlett issued her first and final statement on the matter. “As a devoted mother and private person and with complete awareness that my daughter will one day be old enough to read the news about herself, I would only like to say that I will never, ever be commenting on the dissolution of my marriage,” she said. “Out of respect for my desires as a parent and out of respect for all working moms, it is with kindness that I ask other parties involved and the media to do the same.”
Duariac, meanwhile, urged Johansson to withdraw her filing. “It is indeed unfortunate, especially for our daughter, that Scarlett filed in Court and made our personal differences so public,” he said in a statement of his own. “I would implore her to withdraw her action promptly and go back, as uncomfortable as it might be, to the negotiating table. We are the parents of a lovely daughter whom we will continue to co-parent for many years and share her joys and sorrows as only a parent can.”
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Romain’s lawyer added that he was “shocked” by the filing and planned to “petition the court to allow him and his daughter to move to France.”
Ultimately, the two quietly finalized their divorce and custody battle under a sealed settlement within the Manhattan Supreme Court in September 2017.
Where They Are Now: Shortly following her divorce from Romain, Scarlett and Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost sparked dating rumors at the season 42 finale party in May 2017. They got engaged in 2019, and the next year, they announced that they had quietly gotten married. In August 2021, they welcomed a son named Cosmo.
Career-wise, Scarlett is still at the top of her game. In 2019, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in A Marriage Story, and after that, she made bank for Disney's Black Widow and gave a critically acclaimed performance in the new Wes Anderson film, Asteroid City.
Romain moved back to Paris full-time following his split from Scarlett — however, not much is known about his current career or love life.
#TBT: Check in every Thursday as we throw it back to some of our favorite celebrity couples of all time.
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