Joaquin Phoenix And Rooney Mara Confirm Birth Of Their Son In Poignant Open Letter
Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara - a Hollywood couple - appear to be totally cool, calm and collected, but at the same time it's really clear just how much they adore one another.
Just look at the above video of the Joker actor admiring Mara on the red carpet at the Oscars earlier this year and then a couple of months before in this picture from the Golden Globes:
Incredible.
Now, the couple have confirmed that they have welcomed their first child together, a son.
November 2020: Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix Confirm Birth Of First Child In Poignant Open Letter
Last month, it was reported that the couple had welcomed their first child together, a boy called River in a tribute to Phoenix's late brother. Over the summer, there were reports Mara was pregnant but the private couple never confirmed the news publicly.
Now, they have, by way of an article in People where they lament the recent news that 545 parents who were separated from their children by immigration officers following Donald Trump's controversial immigration policies have still not been located, meaning the children remain without their parents.
As new parents, it's unbearable to imagine what it would feel like to have our child taken away from us for a day, let alone years. But that's the very situation those 545 children and their parents have been living through. As Americans, it's our responsibility to continue paying attention to the plight of these families and get answers for why they still have not been located.
The couple referenced the horrors of this policy and the effects on both the parents, many of whom were seeking asylum in the US, and the psychological effects on young children who have not seen their parents in perhaps two years.
The activists urged readers to continue to speak up and fight for these children, even if the majority of news coverage has dwindled:
We have to ask ourselves: Is this the country that we want? Are these our values? How will it feel to explain to our son, when he asks us about this time and how we treated scared, defenceless children, some of whom may never see their parents again? For the sake of our nation's character, I hope we will be able to tell him that America unequivocally rejected this cruelty and demanded that our representatives did everything in their power to find those missing parents.
Here's a look back at the origins of their relationship with highlights from their time together...
2013: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara first meet on a film set
The actors first met on the set of the 2013 Spike Jonze film Her (you know the one where Phoenix's character falls in love with a piece of artificial intelligence played by Scarlett Johansson) though the couple were not romantically involved at this point.
January 2017: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara star in another film together and become romantically entwined
Fast forward four years and the actors are working together again, this time on the 2018 film Mary Magdalene in which Phoenix played Jesus and Mara, Mary Magdalene. Reports circulated during filming in 2017 that the couple had formed a romantic relationship however, this was played down by Phoenix's reps telling Page Six at the time they were 'just good friends'.
May 2017: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara confirm relationship
A few months later and it appeared that the co-stars were very much a couple after attending the Cannes Film Festival together looking very adorable and cosy.
Seated next to each other at the closing ceremony of the annual film festival, Phoenix was photographed holding his girlfriend's hand before receiving the gold leaf prize for his role in You Were Never Really Here.
Months later, in September, Phoenix confirmed in an interview with the New York Times that he and Mara had moved in together in the Hidden Hills, and discussed how they spend some of their time watching Netflix documentaries together.
May 2019: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara get engaged
Rumours the couple were engaged first emerged in May, after Mara was seen wearing a diamond on her ring finger. Two months later, US Weekly claimed they had confirmed the news that the couple were engaged.
In July, the couple - who are both vegans and animal rights activists - were photographed at a National Animal Rights Day demonstration in Los Angeles.
October 2019: Joaquin Phoenix opens up about origins of Rooney Mara relationship
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Phoenix discussed how much he liked Mara before the couple got together in 2017. He told the magazine that when he first met the 35-year-old on the set of Her he thought she 'hated' him but later learned she was just shy and actually liked him back.
'She’s the only girl I ever looked up on the internet,' he said. 'We were just friends, email friends. I’d never done that. Never looked up a girl online.'
January 2020: Joaquin Phoenix pays tribute to Rooney Mara at awards show
When the 2020 awards season rolled around, Phoenix swept the board scooping the Best Actor prize at pretty much every ceremony for his role in Joker. And right there beside him at every show was a proud Mara.
During his first speech at the Golden Globes, the 45-year-old started to pay tribute to his fiancé before stuttering and becoming emotional at the mere mention of her name while she smiled sweetly and the audience let out cries of 'aww' in unison.
Fans also became accustomed to seeing Phoenix quickly pose for his photos on the red carpet before turning to Mara in awe as she took her turn.
Adorable.
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