Minnie Driver Discusses Broken Engagement to Josh BrolinMinnie Driver Discusses Broken Engagement to Josh Brolin Minnie Driver has revealed her thoughts on her past engagement to Josh Brolin, stating that she has no regrets about ending the relationship. Speaking to The Sunday Times, Driver shared that her childhood discovery of her father’s secret second family influenced her views on marriage. She felt a desire to be married but made choices that were not in her best interest. Regarding her engagement to Brolin, Driver commented, “The one time I was engaged it would have been, I think, the biggest mistake of my life.” The couple met on the set of the 2000 film “Slow Burn” and were engaged for five months before breaking off their wedding in 2001. Driver, who has never been married, has a 15-year-old son from a previous relationship. She is currently in a relationship with writer Addison O’Dea. She praised O’Dea as the most devoted and loving partner she could have imagined, who fulfills her childhood idea of a husband. In a separate interview on Today, Driver advised her younger self to avoid dating actors. She had previously dated her “Good Will Hunting” costar Matt Damon and had a brief relationship with Harrison Ford. While she admitted to having fun during those experiences, she now believes that finding a partner outside the entertainment industry would be more beneficial.
Minnie Driver has no regrets about calling it quits with her ex-fiancé Josh Brolin.
The Good Will Hunting actress recently reflected on their decades-old engagement while considering how her parents’ relationship affected her own romances.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times, she said she found out at the age of 12 that her parents split because her father was married to another woman and had a secret second family. The discovery impacted her feelings on marriage for years to come.
“If I look at my history, what it did was make me want to be married so much and then choose men who were so not the right men to be married to,” she told the outlet. “So I would carry on longing to be married and to have that conservative version (of a relationship), find men who had no interest in that, and then if one did, run a mile.”
Minnie Driver and Josh Brolin.
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Referencing her 2001 engagement to Brolin, she added, “The one time I was engaged it would have been, I think, the biggest mistake of my life.”
Driver and Brolin, who met on the set of the 2000 thriller Slow Burn, were engaged for five months before calling of their wedding in October 2001. Brolin, who was previously married to ex-wife Alice Adair for eight years, would go on to wed actress Diane Lane in 2004. They split in 2013, and he married model Kathryn Boyd three years later.
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Driver never married but has a 15-year-old son, Henry, from a previous relationship with writer-producer Timothy J. Lea. She is now with writer Addison O’Dea.
Of her current relationship, the actress said, “Now I’m with someone who doesn’t want to get married but who is the most devoted, loving, extraordinary… Everything I could have wanted in my childhood idea of a husband, he actually is.”
Minnie Driver and Addison O’Dea.
Todd Williamson/JanuaryImages/Shutterstock
The Beekeeper star also discussed her dating history during a June visit to Today. Asked what piece of advice she would give to her younger self, Driver said simply, “Don’t date actors.”
Driver dated her Good Will Hunting costar Matt Damon, only to end the relationship before the 1998 Oscars, where the film won two awards. She was also briefly linked with Harrison Ford.
Of her time dating fellow Hollywood stars, Driver admitted, “I had the best time doing it,” but as an aside to her younger self, she said she’d say, “Honey, find a nice plumber. Find an electrician. Find someone who just wants to stay home and support you.”
