Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant are the exes you wish you had. After dating for 13 years, including all of the 1990s, the former hot-and-heavy lovebirds have become the best and most supportive of friends. Their romance may not have worked out, but they're definitely living happily ever after.
Hurley, 49, was positively effusive about her ex during an interview on Access Hollywood Live this week to promote her new show The Royals. The appearance followed her much talked-about chat with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, where she rated Grant a 10 in bed but said he could be a bit of a grump sometimes. (Her friends used to call him "Grumpelstiltskin"!)
"He is annoying," she told Access Hollywood hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover of the Bridget Jones's Diary actor, whom she dated from 1987 to 2000. "But I annoy him too. I mean, it's a mutual annoyance. But we love each other a lot."
She went on to describe him as one of the "kindest, most loyal people in the universe" — which explains how they've managed to stay so close since their split 15 years ago.
"I mean, there wasn't a question of us not being best friends," Hurley said. "I think when you've been with someone for a long time, they are family. And to me, he's like a big brother. Or not even a big brother, 'cause sometimes I'm more grown up than him. But we're like siblings now."
So there's not even the slightest hint of a spark left between them? "No, there's no romantic flicker, but we love each other a lot," she insisted.
"I mean, I love him passionately," she continued. "I love him like I love my son [Damian, 12] and my brother, and I used to love my father. It's a grand passion. But I think it's quite nice when you realize you can have a passionate friendship with someone, but it's not actually sexual. It's just really intense feelings of love, I guess."
In fact, Grant is the godfather of Hurley's son with ex-fling Steve Bing, and she's the godmother of one of his children, too. (Grant has three kids with two different women.)
"He's a spectacular father," she gushed on Access Hollywood Live. "He doesn't live with any of his children, but he sees all three of them every single day. He's great. He's a really good dad…He's really come into his own. He doesn't talk about being nice, because he likes to be thought of as horrid. He's the nicest man in the universe."
