8 Things You Didn’t Know About Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s Epic Romance
When you think of the greatest Hollywood couples, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are among the first to come to mind. The two were married in 1958 and remained together until Newman’s death in 2008. That is impressive by any metric, but doubly so for Hollywood, which is infamous for its breakups and reshuffling of partners. Their love for each other even inspired a 2022 docuseries directed by Ethan Hawke, HBO’s The Last Movie Stars, which explored the couple’s relationship.
What kept them together for so long? And was their love story really as perfect as some say?
1They met on Broadway … while Newman was married to someone else
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Paul Newman, who is perhaps best-known for his classic roles as Butch Cassidy in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Luke in Cool Hand Luke, first met Joanne Woodward in 1953 while working on the Broadway show Picnic, which was Newman’s first major acting gig. Sparks flew immediately, but Newman was still married to Jackie Witte, and Woodward was reportedly engaged to author Gore Vidal.
Newman admitted to getting together with Woodward before officially splitting from Witte. In his memoir, he says that he regretted how he acted during his divorce from Witte, and particularly, how he explained the divorce to their children: “What I did just didn’t have any class. I didn’t take them aside and give them comfort by explanation, certainly not in a way that they would understand.” They married in 1958, the same year he and Witte divorced.
2Their family had six children
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Following their Las Vegas wedding, the two quickly settled into family life. Woodward became a stepmother to Newman’s three children from his first marriage, and the couple later welcomed three daughters, Elinor, Melissa and Claire “Clea,” who is now an ambassador for her father’s nonprofit.
3They were both nominated for Oscars in the same year
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Newman and Woodward collaborated on a number of film projects throughout their long marriage, including The Long Hot Summer, From the Terrace, Paris Blues, A New Kind of Love and The Drowning Pool, among many, many others.
In 1969, the pair made history as one of the very few couples to receive Oscar nominations during the same year, for their work on the same film. That film, Rachel, Rachel was a true family affair — Woodward starred, Newman directed, and their daughter Nell even appeared as a younger version of her mother’s character.
Woodward was up for Best Actress, while Newman was up for Best Picture as both producer and director. Neither won that day — Woodward had already won an Oscar in 1957, getting Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve, but Newman would not take home an Oscar til 1986.
In 1990, they released their final collaboration, the James Ivory-directed film Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. Woodward got an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of India Bridge, though Newman, who played Gene Bridge, was shut out again.
4Woodward and her daughter graduated from the same college in the same year
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Another fun family moment was when Woodward graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea, in 1990; Newman gave the commencement speech. Another Newman daughter, Lissy Newman, had graduated from the college two years earlier.
Woodward had attended Louisiana State University in the late 1940s, but left her studies to move to New York and begin her acting career.
5They endured tragedy together
Though Woodward and Newman’s marriage is often viewed as a Hollywood fairytale, they had some difficult moments, too. In 1978, Newman’s oldest child, Scott, died from an accidental drug and alcohol overdose. He was just 28 years old at the time.
6They were both deeply engaged in charitable work (which included salad dressing)
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By the late ’80s, the couple’s focus shifted from making films to establishing charitable organizations, including Newman’s Own — a food and drink company famous for its salad dressing, which donated almost all of its profits to charity. “Both of my parents felt it was important to give back,” daughter Clea told People following the 2022 release of Newman’s posthumous memoir, Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. “Me and my sisters learned that from an early age.”
7Their secret to relationship success isn’t what you’d think
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Newman was famously one of the most handsome actors of his era. But according to Woodward, that was only a minor consideration compared to the real thing that kept the couple together.
In a 2002 episode of The Today Show, she recalled: “Somebody once said, ‘What is your relationship based on?’ and I said, ‘He’s very good looking and very sexy and all of those things, but all that goes out the window and what finally is left is if you can make somebody laugh, then that’s very important.’ And he sure does keep me laughing.”
8… or maybe it is what you’d think
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Though there is no doubt that Newman and Woodward’s connection was deep, profound and emotional, and his posthumously released memoir has some steamy details about his early days with Woodward. “We left a trail of lust all over the place,” he said. “Hotels and public parks and Hertz Rent-A-Cars.” He also claimed that Woodward once referred to their shared bedroom as “the F— Hut,” and recalled that early in their marriage, “Even if my kids came over, we’d go into the f— hut several nights a week and just be intimate and noisy and ribald.”
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