Daniel Gillies and Rachael Leigh Cook announce split after 15 years of marriage
'The Originals' star Daniel Gillies and his wife of 15 years and 'She's All That' actress Rachael Leigh Cook have officially separated. The stars announced their split in a joint statement on Thursday.
“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,” shared the statement that both of them posted on their individual Instagram account. “This decision isn’t one we have come to easily or lightly. 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 statement continued.
The couple also added: “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.” The statement ended with “Lots of love, Rachael and Daniel.”
The 39-year-old actress and the 43-year-old actor tied the knot in August 2004 and in their 15 years of marriage, they had two kids together: a five-year-daughter, Charlotte Easton, and a four-year-old son Theodore Vigo Sullivan. It was in 2013 that Cook first opened up about her marriage to the actor after she announced her first pregnancy. “We got married incredibly fast,” the actress had shared with People magazine.
“We got engaged after dating for maybe five months and we got married a couple of months after that,” she added. “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.”
Cook had also said how most people reacted to her pregnancy news with a gasp of “Finally!” — implying the long wait the couple took up before adding a third member to their lives. But she insisted how both she and her husband, Gillies, had no regrets for waiting that long. “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,'" Cook, 33 at the time, had shared with the outlet. “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.”