Celebrity News July 15, 2020
Daniel Gillies Files for Divorce from Rachael Leigh Cook
A year after their split, actor Daniel Gillies has filed for divorce from actress Rachael Leigh Cook.
According to The Blast, Gillies filed the papers in Los Angeles last week.
It is unclear whether Gillies has requested spousal support or any type of custody arrangement for their two children, Theodore, 5, and Charlotte, 6.
Last year, Daniel and Rachael announced they were splitting up after 14 years of marriage. They wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post, “With deep gratitude for every year we have spent together and the thousands of beautiful memories shared, we have mutually decided to separate as a couple.”
Rachael and Daniel pointed out that the decision to end their marriage didn't come “easily or lightly.” They continued, “We love and respect each other as parents, people and artists and look forward to maintaining the best parts of our relationship for many years to come.”
The two also expressed concern for their kids, saying, “Your discretion in this matter is kindly requested for the sake of our children during this time of transition. Thank you to those of you who are already aware; for your tremendous compassion and understanding.”
In 2004, Rachael and Daniel began dating after meeting at a bar in Hollywood. They married later that year. She told People magazine in 2013, “We got married incredibly fast. We got engaged after dating for maybe five months and we got married a couple of months after that. There was just so much more both of us wanted to do. We wanted to travel and accomplish a lot more in our professional lives.”
The pair waited 10 years to have children. She explained, “We're both people who like kids, but we weren't jumping up and down, like, 'Oh, my God, let's start that chapter of our lives. We weren't those kind of people. Now that we know what our lives are going to look like — sort of — for the next couple of months, we just felt like it was the right time finally. We're not getting any younger.”
In 2018, Rachael joked about why they never ran lines together, telling Us Weekly, “No, we don't because — divorce. That's just not something that is good for us. I'm sure that's good for other actor couples, but we had to throw in the towel on that one.”
At the time, she also shared some marriage advice, saying, “Something I need to learn, myself, is it's a wonderful thing to be self-sufficient, but it's also good to be actively vulnerable so your partner can feel needed as well. That's an important part of a partnership, because it defines their role as your rock in this life. It's something that I need to get a little bit better at.”
Cook achieved fame in the '90s after starring in the film “She's All That.”