Ethan Hawke Recalls ‘Humiliating’ Attention on His Breakup from Uma Thurman

Ethan Hawke is giving rare insight into his split from Uma Thurman.

More than 20 years after the former couple went their separate ways, the Blue Moon actor — who shares daughter Maya, 27, and son Levon, 23, with Thurman — spoke to GQ Hype about their breakup for a new cover story, published Monday, Sept. 1.

“It’s humiliating. It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things,” Hawke, 54, said of the media coverage surrounding their relationship and split.

Thurman, 55, filed for divorce from Hawke in 2004, after separating the year before. The pair, who married in 1998, finalized their divorce in 2005.

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Hawke and Thurman met at work — specifically, while filming their 1997 sci-fi flick Gattaca. Asked by GQ about his opinions on actors falling for one another during movie projects, Hawke likened the experience to a game of Spin the Bottle.

“There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling,” he explained.

For Hawke, falling in love on set “turns the temperature up in your life,” and can feel “like falling in love at summer camp.”

“It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it,” he told GQ.

Hawke later married Ryan Shawhughes in 2008, and the couple welcomed two daughters together: Indiana, 14, and Clementine, 17.

Thurman, meanwhile, was previously married to Gary Oldman and later went on to date Arpad Busson. The Kill Bill actress was engaged to Busson, 62, in 2008, and they split briefly in 2009 before welcoming daughter Luna in July 2012. They broke up for good in 2014.

Following her divorce from Hawke, Thurman told Parade magazine in 2006, “I cannot participate in anything critical about my children’s father.”

“I just need to keep peace,” she added. “I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t said one mean thing, and I’m not going to start now. It’s terrible for my family.”