They say time heals all wounds, but the internet never forgets. That much was made clear this week when Billy Crudup and Claire Danes were spotted sharing a warm hug at the 2025 NYU Tisch School of the Arts Gala in New York City.
The former couple—whose early-2000s relationship made headlines for all the wrong reasons—looked friendly and relaxed as they briefly chatted at the event. But with just one polite exchange, they reignited a cultural memory of one of Hollywood’s most controversial love triangles.
A Scandal From Stage To Screen
To understand why this moment matters, we need to take a trip back in time to 2003. Crudup, then 35, was in a long-term relationship with actress Mary-Louise Parker. The pair, whose own romance began when they met on the set of their Broadway play, Bus Stop, in 1996, were expecting their first child after eight years together. But seven months into Parker’s long awaited pregnancy, Crudup reportedly called things off, choosing instead to pursue a relationship with Danes, who was 24 at the time.
The two had also met on set, only this time it was during the filming of Stage Beauty, and their off-screen romance quickly became the stuff of tabloid legend. The backlash was swift and brutal, largely, and predictably, aimed at Danes, who later admitted that such scrutiny was emotionally taxing, but was deeply formative.
“That was really hard. I didn’t know how to not do that,” Danes shared in a 2015 interview on The Howard Stern Show. “I was just in love with him, and needed to explore that, and I was 24.”
“I didn’t quite know what those consequences would be,” she added.
Parker, then 39, gave birth to their son, William, in January 2004, and as the media’s attention intensified, so too did the newly-minted couple’s connection.
Just a few months after rumours of their fling started making headlines, and even less time since they split from their respective partners (Danes was dating Australian singer Ben Lee at the time) the couple were “spotted nuzzling all over New York City.” Understandably the salacious headlines only grew louder, eventually prompting Crudup to call for an end to the public’s intrigue in a 2004 profile with the New York Times.
Writing to reporter Jesse Green about his wishes, he explained: “I just want to make an argument for not including anything about the Mary-Louise Parker situation,” the email read. “First and foremost it is personal, painful and involves an infant, and down not deserve to be exploited to sate the appetites of circulation counters and bored readers.”
“I have never indulged our society’s misguided notion that my personal life is relevant to my work,” he continued. “So any reporting surrounding that is necessarily hearsay, speculation or fantasy. Each published report is based only on the trade of suffering.”
Parker, for her part, opened up in her 2015 memoir Dear Mr. You, writing candidly—if poetically—about that time in her life without directly naming names. “I realise now that whatever I was walking through was part of my life, one piece of a bigger story that is mostly beautiful.”
Billy Crudup & Claire Danes Reunite
Despite the storm of criticism, Crudup and Danes stayed together for four years before quietly splitting in 2007.
Both actors have since moved on with other partners—Danes married Hugh Dancy in 2009, while Crudup went on to marry Naomi Watts in 2023 after over five years together.
Still, the shadow of the scandal has never completely lifted. So when the former couple appeared at the same Tisch Gala in April 2025, it didn’t take long for the internet to remember.
In photos from the event, Crudup and Danes appear to greet each other cordially—smiling, embracing, and exchanging a few words before moving on. It was a small moment, but one that felt like a full-circle moment, given the pair’s history.
And in an era where the public is more attuned than ever to how celebrity women are unfairly vilified, many online have taken this moment to reflect on how harshly Danes was treated at the time—while Crudup, notably, faced far less blowback.
Plus, it’s not often we get a neat narrative arc in celebrity history—but if this was the postscript to one of Hollywood’s messiest love stories, it’s one that leaves us with a slightly softer ending, if only Mary-Louise was there to join in.
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