Iconic actress Meryl Streep has been with her husband Don Gummer for over four decades, and they still sweep the red carpet together at big events every year. Streep has an incredible career spanning even longer than her marriage, and Gummer has been by her side the whole time. Most people don’t necessarily have a lot of info about the artist and father of Streep’s four children, despite how long they have been together.
Here’s everything to know about Meryl Streep’s husband Don Gummer.
Who is Don Gummer?
Gummer is an accomplished artist with a bachelor’s degree from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and an MFA from Yale University. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and primarily works as a contemporary sculptor with a number of both solo and group exhibitions appearing around the world throughout his career.
How did Streep and Gummer meet?
In March 1978, Streep’s then-boyfriend John Cazale passed away from lung cancer. The pair had dated for two years, and appeared in The Deer Hunter together. Gummer met Streep while she was still mourning her loss, according to Michael Schulman’s biography Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep.
She’d decided to move out of the apartment she once shared with Cazale. When her brother came to help, he brought his friend Don Gummer. Streep and Gummer hit it off as friends themselves, and she ended up subletting his apartment as he was traveling. They corresponded while he was away through letters and began a romance upon his return.
How long have they been together?
The couple were married in September 1978, not long after their romance commenced.
Does Meryl Streep have children?
The couple share four children, the youngest of whom was born in 1991. Henry, Mamie, Grace, and Louisa all have various artistic pursuits, though they were raised out of the public eye in Connecticut.
“They got their legs from their dad, thank God,” Streep joked 2006. “[They got] my sense of humor and a love of a bargain.”
They’re also grandparents. In 2019, Mamie welcomed her son with Mehar Sethi. Henry and his wife, Tamryn, welcomed their daughter Ida June in 2020 and their son Quinn William in 2022. Grace and husband Mark Ronson gave birth to their first child in early 2023, a little girl.
How have they maintained such a long marriage?
While talking to Vogue in 2002, Streep said her and Gummer’s secret to a healthy relationship is “goodwill and willingness to bend—and to shut up every once in a while.”
“There’s no road map on how to raise a family: It’s always an enormous negotiation,” she added. “But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”
About raising kids, she told the Sydney Morning Herald, “Teamwork is everything. My husband Don was … very involved. He was a little more relaxed when it comes to raising kids. I was more of a tiger mom.”
And she said Gummer was “always happy to look after the children” while she traveled for her work.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.