Charlize Theron met actor Stuart Townsend on the set of "Trapped," a 2002 thriller where they played a couple whose daughter, played by Dakota Fanning, is kidnapped by Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love. A few years into their courtship, Theron — finally the more famous one in the relationship — expressed her sense that she'd gotten lucky with Townsend. "The lotto was scratched and I won," she told Diane Sawyer at ABC News. "I don't think I could have imagined a love like that."
Townsend was Theron's date to the 2004 Oscars, the ceremony where Theron picked up a golden statuette for her work in "Monster." Townsend told Irish America that the night was an enjoyable one, insisting that the difference in their level of fame didn't affect their relationship. "I had the best night ever," he said. "That's what was really nice about it. Celebrating my girlfriend winning an Oscar."
By 2007, Townsend told People that they were married in all but the official sense. "I didn't do a church wedding or anything," he said, "but we're married. We're husband and wife. We love each other and we want to spend our lives together." Perhaps it's for the best that the marriage wasn't officially recognized, which likely made their inevitable split easier, logistically speaking. According to sources in the Daily Mail, Theron dumped Townsend after a joint vacation gone wrong, and they went their separate ways in early 2010.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmcG5nbYV3e8Bmq6KllaG2r7GMqJ1mm5iWv6212Z5kraCVp7yvv4yrnKWZpJ68r7%2FHoqesZw%3D%3D
