Mary-Louise Parker has confessed how happy she is for her ex Billy Crudup, after he married his long term partner Naomi Watts.
Billy and Mary-Louise were together for eight years until he left her in 2003, while she was seven months pregnant with their son William, for Claire Danes. Claire and Billy's romance ended three years later in 2006.
But now, Mary-Louise has shared how she has a better relationship with Billy, because he is the father of her son.
© Jeff Kravitz"I wish them well,” Mary Louise told The Guardian. “And absolutely, I honestly of course wish them every happiness because that’s my son’s father. So I’m happy for them. I’m happy they found each other.”
In 1996, Billy, then 28, started dating Mary-Louise, then 32, after they met as co-stars in the Broadway drama Bus Stop, and the two were together for nearly eight years, until 2003. In 2003, while the actress was pregnant with both her and Billy's first child together, the two split two months before she was due to give birth.
At the time, New York Post reported that the actor had moved on with his former Stage Beauty co-star Claire – then 24 and 11 years Billy's junior – though the alleged romance was quickly denied by his reps in a statement to People, which read, in part, that "Claire has been friends with Billy for ten years," and that she was still with her former boyfriend, Australian rocker Ben Lee.
© GettyDespite the denial, just months later in the summer of 2004 – when Billy and Mary-Louise's son was seven months old – Billy and Claire were spotted throughout New York City on plenty of loved-up PDA moments, effectively confirming their romance.
Claire and Billy broke up in 2006, the year the actress met her now-husband Hugh Dancy on the set of the film Evening. They announced their engagement in February 2009, and tied the knot in France later that year. They have two sons together, Cyrus, ten, and Rowan, four, and she is currently pregnant with their third child.
Following the scandal, Claire addressed the drama to the now-defunct Blackbook Magazine in 2009: "That was a choice I made to fall in love. It's unpleasant to be cast in such an unflattering role [in the tabloids], but I just had to remain steadfast," adding: "I was living with the same kind of integrity that I had always lived with."
© Jon KopaloffMary-Louise has addressed it even less. In her 2015 memoir, Dear Mr. You, where she wrote different letters to real and hypothetical men, though she never named Billy, she recalled an emotional confrontation with an NYC taxi driver when she was pregnant.
She wrote that after he asked her to get out of his car, telling her: "I don't want you anymore," she thought: "No one does," and that: "My life is worse than yours in this moment," noting: "I am alone. Look, see? I am pregnant and alone. It hurts to even breathe."
Naomi and Billy tied the knot on June 10 2023, sharing the news with fans on social media. Naomi wore an Oscar de la Renta Sweetheart Water Lily Guipure Dress, and gold heeled sandals, while Billy donned a navy blue suit and white button-up shirt.
They were later pictured arriving home and showing off their new rings, with Billy, 54, wearing a silver ring on his left ring hand and Naomi a gold one that sat underneath her diamond engagement ring. She also carried a bouquet of simple white flowers and greenery, which she revealed was from a local deli, and a white blazer was tucked over her arm.
