It had been 24 years since Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. split before they reconnected last year. In a new interview with Howard Stern on Tuesday, October 18 — her first-ever with the radio host — the Divorce actress revealed that it wasn’t awkward at all to see her ex.
“It was really nice,” Parker, 51, told Stern of her meeting with Downey Jr., who battled alcohol and drug abuse during their seven-year relationship in the ’80s. “It was surprisingly not weird … we were 18 when we met and fundamentally we are sort of the same. I think the difference is he has a family and a wife and obviously his career is a massive thing, but I think his true nature — it was completely familiar.”
As previously reported, the Iron Man actor, also 51, told Stern during an April 2015 interview that he wanted to get closure with SJP after they called it quits in 1991. “As opposed to just doing what’s required of me, I actually want to take care of some personal business,” he told Stern at the time. “I wanna check in with someone I shared a big part of my life with and say ‘Hi.’”
The exes ended up meeting at SJP’s house in NYC and getting dinner together.
Despite Downey Jr.’s struggle with addiction — which he admitted played a big part in their split during a 2008 interview with Parade magazine — the HBO star never lost respect for him.
“I always felt very affectionate towards him … I thought it ended well in the way we broke up,” Parker reflected to Stern on Tuesday. “I never didn’t care about his well being … I never felt resentment.”
During his candid interview with Parade in 2008, the Age of Ultron actor talked about the downfall of their relationship in 1991.
“I liked to drink, and I had a drug problem, and that didn’t jibe with Sarah Jessica, because it is the furthest thing from what she is,” he said at the time. “She provided me a home and understanding. She tried to help me. She was so miffed when I didn’t get my act together.”
Both have since moved on. SJP married husband Matthew Broderick six years later in 1997, and Downey Jr., now sober, is happily married to his second wife, Susan Downey.
