May December actress Julianne Moore has been with her husband, director Bart Freundlich, for almost three decades. They share two children together.
Their long and stable relationship is an inspiration to people inside and outside of Hollywood, and Moore has shared plenty of advice on how to maintain such a compelling connection.
But before getting to that, here’s everything to know about Freundlich and how he met and married one of the silver screen’s biggest stars.
Who is Bart Freundlich?
Freundlich was born and raised in Manhattan by parents Debbie and Larry Freundlich. His mother was a marketing consultant while his dad was a publisher.
Freundlich studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, getting a dual degree in cinema studies and film and television production.
He is now a director and made his first full-length film in 1997, The Myth of Fingerprints, which starred Moore. Freundlich went on to write as well as direct 2005’s Trust the Man and 2016’s Wolves. He even directed some television, including episodes of Californication and Mozart in the Jungle. And he’s worked with Moore quite a few more times since they first met, including on 2001’s World Traveler, 2005’s Trust the Man, and 2019’s After the Wedding.
Freundlich told True 212 when After The Wedding premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, “It’s a great feeling to see something you’ve spent months working on finally reach completion. The directing process can be a long and difficult one, but getting positive feedback from people who have enjoyed the film certainly makes it all worthwhile.”
He added of Moore, there’s “no one I’d rather work with.”
“She’s just the best at what she does…I haven’t worked with her for about 10 years,” he said. “She is very specific about the roles she takes. They either speak to her or they don’t speak to her.”
At the film’s premiere, Moore told People, “I’m pretty familiar with working with my husband, so it didn’t feel out of the ordinary. I think if anything, I’m highly sensitive to his moods, and so I know when things are bothering him.”
How long have Moore and Freundlich been together?
Before Freundlich, Moore was married to actor John Gould Rubin from 1986 until their divorce in 1995. A few years later, when she first met the director, Moore was dating someone new but was still going through the logistics of the divorce. She joked that she was “super grumpy” when they first met at a Q&A at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in 2019.
Her boyfriend at the time had just crashed her car. She said she was a bit sharp with Freundlich upon arriving at their meeting. In turn, he was “so patient” when discussing the part.
“I asked him, ‘Why do you see me in this character?’” Moore said. “And he said, ‘Because you look like you’re two different people when your face is in complete repose and when you smile. You have a duality to your physicality.’ And I went, ‘Oh! OK, alright!’ ”
Freundlich apparently thought the discussion went badly, but she left thinking, “I’m going to do that kid’s movie.”
Sparks flew soon afterwards, and they welcomed a child in 1997, their eldest son, Caleb. But they didn’t get married until 2003, which Moore told The Guardian was more about her kids than a pressing need to marry again.
“The only reason I got married in 2003 was for my children,” the actress said. “I had a therapist who said marriage is really a container for a family, and that made sense to me.”
Do they have kids?
After welcoming Caleb on Dec. 4, 1997, their daughter, Liv, arrived on April 11, 2002.
Caleb is a musician and composer of music for films and video games, according to his website. Like his dad, he attended New York University and earned a master’s in music. Both his parents have been supportive of his artistic projects.
Liv went on to study at Northwestern University. She and Moore modeled for the Bulgari’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide together in April 2022. Moore told Harper’s Bazaar at the time,“I’ve been bragging about Liv since the day she was born, and I’m so impressed by how well she navigates the world and how mature she is.”
What else has Moore said about Freundlich?
In 2020, Moore told Drew Barrymoore on The Drew Barrymore Show that she and Freundlich make things work by making each other laugh.
“The only thing that I can say is, I think that you both have to really want to be married,” she admitted. “I do feel like I’ve seen situations where things aren’t working out for people, one of the members of the couple doesn’t want to be there.”
Moore went on, “I think if you’re both invested in it working out, and then you really have to have a good time. My god, I think they really have to make you laugh. If they don’t make you laugh, it’s just deadly.”
In 2019, Moore told People, “We have this narrative in our culture that if you want a career, you have to work hard, go to school, look for a job, you have to apply yourself, but love is supposed to just happen to you. One day you’re going to meet someone and get hit over the head and boom! That happens in romantic comedies, but in real life, you have to make time. When you find a person, you have to invest in them and that relationship. And that’s what love is.”
A few years later in February 2023, she said, “Bart has always made me laugh so hard that my eyelids start to flip up. My god, does he make me laugh…I feel happy that my marriage is thriving and intact. That’s a really great thing. I think you both have to want to be together. Find somebody who’s as interested in you as you are in them.”