Charlize Theron is setting the record straight.
The actress recently dished on her former high-profile relationship with actor Sean Penn while on The Howard Stern Show .
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There, she debunked one famous rumor that’s followed their relationship for years: that she and Sean were once engaged.
Keep reading to find out what she has to say, plus learn her current thoughts on marriage.
There’s always been a lot of rumors surrounding Charlize Theron’s high-profile relationship to Sean Penn.
The pair famously began dating in late 2013, but they had actually been friends for 20 years before that.
“I think our friendship stemmed from mutual respect,” the South African actress told *Esquire* in 2015.
“More on my end, because I really didn’t have a body of work twenty years ago, but my love and passion for making films — that was our common ground,” she explained .
She continued:
“And also, Sean liked to have conversations outside of just making movies. That’s sometimes hard to find among friends here, and that’s where our friendship really blossomed.”
While they started dating in late 2013, this wouldn’t be confirmed until 2014.
This was after photos surfaced of the pair ringing in the new year together in Hawaii.
At the time, Charlize had visited the island with her then-two-year-old child, Jackson.
As soon as the couple’s romance was confirmed, engaged rumors began to circulate.
Speculation over this started after the actress was spotted wearing a diamond ring on her left ring finger while walking through LAX.
If the rumors were true, it would be Sean’s third marriage.
He was previously married to Madonna and Robin Wright.
This rumor, however, was soon debunked after sources told People that the Anita Ko ring was just a gift.
If that wasn’t proof enough, the *Mad Max* actress told *Vogue* that marriage wasn’t in the cards for her.
“Let’s put it this way: I never had the dream of the white dress. And watching other people getting married? I think it’s beautiful for them, but to be quite honest, usually I’m sitting there just devastated,” she said .
“It’s supposed to be this night of celebrating love, and all you see is a couple separated all night making sure everybody else is OK.”
She continued:
“It just looks like a lot of work. And as you get older, you start sifting through the stuff that really matters.”
A year after this, the couple had split.
As always, a lot of rumors circulated over why they ended, but Charlize soon put these to bed.
She told WSJ : “We were in a relationship and then it didn’t work anymore. And we both decided to separate. That’s it.”
But there’s still one rumor that’s stuck after all these years: the rumor that Charlize and Sean were once engaged.
Well, in a recent interview with Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show , Charlize was determined to set the record straight.
“What? That’s not true. no,” she said.
“I did not ‘almost get married to Sean’, that’s such [expletive],” she continued.
“No, we dated, that was literally all we did, we dated. It was a relationship, for sure. We were definitely exclusive, but it was for barely a year.”
She confirmed that the two never reached many of the typical relationship milestones.
“We never moved in. I was never going to marry him. It was nothing like that.”
Howard then asked Charlize if she ever thought of marriage or felt lonely.
To this, Theron said, “I never wanted to get married. That’s never been something that’s important to me.”
“On the lives of my children, I’ve never been lonely. I’ve never felt alone,” she continued, while adding that she’s not afraid to have romantic relationships.
“My life right now just doesn’t allow a lot of room for something like that to happen,” Theron said.
“But in saying that, there’s not this thing that drives me [to have a romantic relationship]. I enjoy being set up on dates but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to live with somebody again.”
She concluded:
“To be totally frank, they might have to buy the house next to me. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to deal with that ever again, I’m too old for that [expletive].”
You can catch clips of her interview with Howard Stern, here .
