Sean Penn To Hollywood Reporter: Divorce From Robin Wright Expensive, Painful

Sean Penn shed his tough-guy facade in a revealing interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week, sharing intimate details about his divorce from Robin Wright, his wife of 14 years, made final in July.

In the interview, the actor, 50, expresses his "profound" lament over the fact that he won't be able to raise his 17-year-old son, Hopper, "in a whole family through high school" (he and Wright also have a 19-year-old daughter, Dylan).

The actor, who has been living primarily in Haiti for the past year spearheading earthquake relief efforts, explains his bitter rationale for taking on paying work (he recently shot the Paolo Sorrentino-directed This Must Be the Place): "I ... just got taken for one half of everything I had in the divorce."

The pair had a famously on-again, off-again relationship, initially filing for divorce in 2007, reconciling in 2008, filing to separate in April 2009, and then putting the kibosh on those proceedings the following month. The latest filing seems to have stuck--for now, at least.

In October, Wright, 44, told Redbook magazine that she intends to stay friendly with Penn, though Penn hasn't exactly been as easygoing--this summer, he told Vanity Fair, "She is a ghost to me now."

Comments

[Jana Peterson]

02:28 AM on 01/30/2011

I'm sure she earned every penny of it. We all know Sean Penn is a brilliant actor and his efforts in Haiti are very honorable. I also believe after being married to Madonna, he wasn't about to share his star with anyone. I think Robin Wright is a brilliant actress in her own right and I am quite sure he had much to do with all of the movies she turned down. They chose for her give up her career to raise their children, she should be entitled to half of their efforts. It's odd to me how men take for granted what it is that Mothers do and how it benefits them. When they are all done with them, they just want to throw them out like trash.

Raising good people is hard work and an asset to humanity. I really love Sean Penn but this interview was really disappointing.

[SouthernQ]

01:41 PM on 01/13/2011

In general, rich men pay too much for their pu 55.y

[JudyChicago]

08:13 PM on 01/09/2011

"I ... just got taken for one half of everything I had in the divorce."

Get real. You lived in Cal. He feels so sorry about his son yet, he's lived in Haiti for the past year?
I understand his relief efforts, but you can't have it both ways.

[warriorwoman73]

07:22 PM on 01/25/2011

I agree Judy - you can't have it both ways. I think Sean Penn is a truly wonderful actor, but this particular public whine is pathetic.

[dave evans1]

11:33 AM on 01/09/2011

Hate him.

[DreamWeaver2nd]

12:31 AM on 01/09/2011

It saddens me that Sean Penn would speak negatively about his former wife, the beautiful Robin Wright. Especially because they have children. The best gift a father may give his children is to show respect for their mother.

I thought Penn was maturing. But boys will be boys. Although, cred where due. His performance as Joe Wilson in the film "Fair Game" : the Valeria Plame and Joe Wilson story, telling the truth and fighting against the Bush administration and also the CIA, was brilliant.

[rosey7]

12:42 PM on 01/08/2011

In California, all the money and assets go into a pot to be divided equally. This works for the goose as well as the gander. Lots of successful women have paid out large divorce sums to their ex husband as well as child support and alimony. Sean Penn has the ability to earn much more money in Hollywood than his wife does. She has already aged out of the higher paying roles while Penn is considered to be in his prime. Unless, she lands a hit television show, her earnings will be much lower than Penn's. He can make up whatever he lost if he stars in a couple of good movies. I am quite sure this wasn't an astronomical settlement since Penn hasn't chosen to do that many movies. And it's interesting that he is bemoaning having half but she isn't. If they are both on equal footing from both their earnings during their marriage, what's the problem?

[DreamWeaver2nd]

12:33 AM on 01/09/2011

"aged-out ..." ?????? Damn! The beautiful Robin Wright grows more beautiful.

[rosey7]

02:54 PM on 01/09/2011

Yes, beautiful but out of contention for most leading woman roles. That's the double standard of Hollywood. The commodity for s major studio movies is young women, men get a much longer time to star in the big budget movies and make the giant salaries.

[Karen Stewart]

10:56 AM on 01/08/2011

I agree the system needs to be a lot better. Check our Fairway Divorce Solutions - fairwaydivorce.com --- this company was created because we need a better way and has expanded throughout Canada and now the United States.
Best advice -- move on and create lemons out of lemonaide.
Karen Stewart

[tiredofpc]

02:55 AM on 01/08/2011

Puerile.

[laaambchop]

01:40 PM on 01/07/2011

Why is he is Haiti instead of with his son?

[bart4u]

04:38 AM on 01/07/2011

Quit crying you make millions. We don't care about you.

[grm1984]

12:48 AM on 01/07/2011

Yeah, Sean, that's usually how it works.

[sf omega man]

09:20 PM on 01/06/2011

uh, half? Isn't that considered a fair divorce settlement?

I'm struggling to understand the mistreatment here.

[Javi Vega]

06:57 PM on 01/06/2011

Robin has been a consistent actress around the years loved by most of the critics. Maybe she's not a big big big star…, but she is considered a very talented actress. And there are some salaries in the net about Robin Wright.
In 1996, the year they get married, Robin Wright won about 2 million for "Moll Flanders"
In 1999, Robin Wright was paid around 3,5 million for "Message in a Bottle"
In 2000, Robin earned 2,5 million for her supporting role in "Unbreakable"
In 2007, she was paid around 3 million for "Beowulf"
So I guess Sean Penn also took half money from Robin Wright

[Waltereg0]

07:28 PM on 01/06/2011

So if she is a rich multimillionaire whose children are grown and a career, what is the logic for giving her any of Penn's money (which was far greater than her own)?

[Waltereg0]

07:31 PM on 01/06/2011

Also, after Moll Flanders bombed Penn rescued her career by getting her cast in movies he was starring in like Hurlyburly and She So Lovely.

[Javi Vega]

08:00 PM on 01/06/2011

I'm sorry, but people in Hollywood wants to work with Robin Wright and that has nothing to do with her ex Sean Penn. In the last year, Robert Redford gave her the leading role in THE CONSPIRATOR.
Bennet Miller has casted her in the upcoming Moneyball with Brad Pitt.
Also she's filming now with David Fincher.
And Ari Folman wants her in the leading role of The congress...
She has a lot of projects that has nothing to do with Sean

Sean Penn never rescued her career. In fact the movies Sean Penn made with her all bombed (She's so lovely, Hurlyburly and Sean Penn directed The Pledge). I'm not criticizing these movies because I think She's so lovely was great and The Pledge was also good…, but a lot of films starring Sean Penn or Robin Wright have bombed… But people continue to want to working with them. They're not Sandra Bullock and those kind of "successful" actors.

[Javi Vega]

06:55 PM on 01/06/2011

I repeat it again because some of you are talking as if Robin Wright stopped making movies or only had "The Princess Bride" and "Forrest Gump" in her filmography.
Robin maybe turned down a lot of big movies (yes, the list of the movies she turned down is almost as long as the list of movies she finally did).
But Robin also earned a lot of money so Sean was not the only one who contributed with HIS Money.
Robin Wright is not an unknown. She has made 37 movies from 1987 to 2010. Plus 4 years in soap opera Santa Barbara (yes…, maybe sometimes daytime soap opera sucks, but you get paid very well)
From 1996 to 2009, when she was married with Sean, Robin made 25 movies.
She also has been in the cover of a lot of American and European magazines and has done photoshoots in Elle, Vogue and lots of magazines. And you get well paid for that…
And she also has made 3 campaigns for French designer Gerard Darel…, and she hasn't done it for free…

[greenygenie]

01:13 PM on 01/06/2011

I read an interview with Sean Penn a long time ago where he discussed that he had been diagnosed with manic-depression, went on meds for it, then decided to live without the meds because it deadened his feelings.

On the one hand -- his dramatic performances have benefited from that choice (I'm reminded of his unbridled grief in "Mystic River".

However, I always take his statements and actions in his day-to-day life with a grain of salt. Saying the mother of your children and your former wife of 14 years is "a ghost to me now", or removing yourself from your children's lives for a full year while self-appointing oneself a martyr sound like examples of bipolar disorder.

But, on the other hand, if a country ever needed manic attention, it would have to be Haiti!