The Celebrity Long Distance Relationship
Many people regard celebrities as glamorous royalty and enjoy reading the current media buzz about their intimate relationships. Behind the photographic appearances of things are real people working out the challenges of complex professional and personal lives. Often a celebrity couple’s relationship is questioned based on innocent but misleading photographs. Celebrities have high divorce rates which lends additional ammunition to rumours of infidelity. Celebrities also experience long distance relationship issues based on the demands of two careers.
FACTORS FOR SUCCESS IN CELEBRITY RELATIONSHIPS
- Shared Goals/ Mutual Focus
What are some important factors in successful celebrity relationships? One key is a mutual focus on something beyond either of the careers of the couple, most often their children.
One celebrity couple that fills this category is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Together they have three biological and three adopted children in their relationship. As individuals, they are subject to rigorous filming schedules and international film sets. To compensate for these stresses on the family, they live a somewhat nomadic lifestyle with their children. Brad has been interviewed as saying that his children “inform his film choices.” They have described themselves as a “military mobile unit” where each child can be ready to slip on a back pack to travel to a set. They have never been legally married and have stated that it is not marriage per say that keeps people together: “We are legally bound to our children, not to each other…”
Another famous celebrity couple is David Beckham, a professional soccer (football) player and his wife Victoria, a Spice girl and British designer. They have three sons together and are expecting their fourth child, a girl, in July. They have homes in London, Spain and LA and spend time apart based on their schedules. Lately they have been more together in the States, and Victoria has said that she believes in putting her family first but giving work as much attention as possible.
Johnny Depp and his French singer/actress girlfriend Vanessa Paradis have two children together. They have been in a long term relationship for 13 years. They have homes in Hollywood, France, Manhattan and the Bahamas. Depp once said that he moved to France in order for the children to have “a simple and calm environment, where everything is not about the next movie.”
- Long Distance respect and trust
Other factors in celebrity couple survival are the advantages of long distance relationships, respect for the professional work that each one does, and a sense of trust in the relationship. Celebrity couples like David and Victoria Beckham say that their trans-Atlantic relationship does not give them an opportunity to get bored with each other.
Trust seems to be an important key in long distance success. Actress Eva Longoria was married to basketball player Tony Parker. She felt that what made their marriage work was the long distance nature of the relationship. Often, they only had three days together and so they did not waste their time fighting but chose to let the little misunderstandings slide. However, they did divorce in early 2011 for unspecified reasons, although there were rumours of marital infidelity on the part of Tony
Parker. Clearly the relationship did not survive the test of trust.
In spite of rumours and misleading photographs, the long term relationship of Depp and Paradis does seem to have the trust and respect factors well in place. Depp was among the throngs who gave Vanessa a standing ovation at a concert of hers and Vanessa has been interviewed about the trust factor. "We understand that, if we want our relationship to continue, we must give each other space, allow each other to go off on our own, and trust each other."
- Conclusions for Non-Celebrities
Couples who are not celebrities will still recognize these factors in their own long distance relationships. Having a larger shared goal, even if it is not children, is very important to long term relationships. Having a sense of respect for the individual career and obligations of a partner is also essential. Finally, long term relationships are based on trust and the willingness to give each partner the space to grow both individually and through the relationship.
| Tweet |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
