Susan Sarandon is a Hollywood icon thanks to her glittering fifty-year TV and film career. The Oscar-winning actress, 79, is known and loved for her extensive list of iconic roles, from Louise Sawyer in Ridley Scott's road trip classic Thelma & Louise to death row activist Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking and heroine Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But while she boasts an impressive collection of fascinating characters, the actor's off-screen life is just as compelling. The Nonnas actress was just 20 years old when she tied the knot with fellow actor Chris Sarandon, whom she met whilst studying at the Catholic University of America.
After their divorce in 1979, Susan was linked to high-profile stars such as David Bowie and Sean Penn, before entering a four-year relationship with director Franco Amurri. In the late 1980s, while filming the baseball film Bull Durham, she met actor Tim Robbins. The pair went on to spend 23 years together and raise two sons, though they chose never to marry.
© GettyThe reason why Susan Sarandon never married her long-time partner Tim Robbins
Susan, who was 12 years Tim's senior, never considered marriage. "I've always liked the idea of choosing to be with somebody," said Susan, who also has an older daughter, Eva, from her relationship with Franco Amurri.
© Getty Images"I thought that if you didn't get married you wouldn't take each other for granted as easily. I don't know if after twenty-something years that was still true," she previously told The Telegraph.
The actress also said that she wouldn't marry Tim because she was "too afraid of taking him for granted or him taking me for granted," according to People. "Maybe it will be a good excuse for a party when I am 80," she added.
© Getty ImagesDuring an appearance on the Divorced, Not Dead podcast in 2021, Susan revealed that she "never wanted to get married the first time".
© GettyWhile she understood why a couple in a long-term relationship with children and a house might want to get hitched, marriage was never something she longed for. "I mean, it's hard not to take each other for granted," she said. "I don't know it just for me, I wasn't interested in it. I don't know why my parents were married."
"Maybe it was a fear of losing your identity," she continued. "When you become a couple (that's) so easy to have happen. Maybe it was partly that."
Susan Sarandon's three children
Susan has three children. She welcomed her eldest child, a daughter named Eva, in March 1985 with her ex-partner Franco Amurri, whom she dated from 1984 until 1988.
© Getty ImagesShe also shares two sons, John and Miles, with Tim Robbins. John "Jack" Henry Robbins was born in May 1989, while Miles arrived in May 1992.
