
In 1989, on the set of The Crossing, a 24-year-old Russell Crowe met 19-year-old on-screen girlfriend Danielle Spencer and fell in love.
What followed was a relationship that would span two decades, two kids and two high-profile breakups.
"We came out of that relationship after a few years with no animosity, it was just circumstance," Danielle told the Daily Mail in 2010 of their first split.
"Russell was very ambitious and very set on moving to Hollywood, but I was younger and working on music as well as acting in Sydney, so I wasn’t ready to take the plunge. We were both too young to settle, but we always stayed in touch – and a strong friendship is a great basis for a relationship."
Watch: The trailer for The Crossing, where Danielle and Russell fell in love. Post continues after video.
They eventually rekindled their relationship and married in 2003 on Crowe's 39th birthday.
On the eve of their nuptials, Crowe gave a very frank interview to the Sydney Morning Herald, revealing that their wedding had been designed out of respect for their families, before they started trying for a baby.
"We thought the two of us, considering the ages that we are, at least owed our parents a public marriage," the actor said.
"My mother's been hoping for this to happen since the day I turned 16."
Following their wedding, the couple had two
sons, Charlie, now 16, and Tennyson, 14.As their family grew, so did Crowe's career, with the actor starring in Hollywood blockbusters Cinderella Man, American Gangster, State of Play and Les Miserables (to name a few) while his kids were young.
In a new interview with Stellar, Spencer, who is notoriously private, touched on that time with her now ex-husband, telling the publication: "It was difficult because I always felt that to keep our family together both of us couldn't be working and there came a point where I had to prioritise the kids, where they needed to be and their schooling."