When Jonathan Safran Foer left wife for Natalie Portman only to be rejected
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Natalie Portman is an acclaimed and beautiful actress and there is no doubt about it. Over the years, the Academy Award-winning star has also gained a huge number of admirers and fans, one of which reportedly includes famous novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.
According to an article by the New York Times’s T Magazine, as reported by Vox, Foer developed feelings for Portman and ended up divorcing his wife, Nicole Krauss, in 2014. But the ‘No Strings Attached’ actress has reportedly continued to maintain her loyalty to Benjamin Millepied for over a decade. The pair, who tied the knot in 2012, is going through a rough phase currently as it has been alleged that the ballet dancer is dating climate activist Camille Etienne, 25.
What actually happened between Natalie Portman and Jonathan Safran Foer?
Reports have said that the actress and the 'Everything Is Illuminated' writer began exchanging emails in 2002. However, the twist apparently came when in 2009 when Foer wrote ‘Eating Animals’ and Portman loved it.
She even penned an op-ed for HuffPost, "Jonathan Safran Foer's ‘Eating Animals’ Turned Me Vegan." She wrote, “What Foer most bravely details is how eating animal pollutes not only our backyards, but also our beliefs. He reminds us that our food is symbolic of what we believe in, and that eating is how we demonstrate to ourselves and to others our beliefs.”
The Israeli-born American star also went on to sign a contract to narrate and co-produce the 2018 documentary on ‘Eating Animals’. Amid these years, Foer reportedly began liking her. It has been said that he confessed his love for Portman before his former wife and also divorced her in 2014 without even asking the ‘Black Swan’ actress about her feelings.
Portman, however, reportedly cleared Foer that she did not love him. But in 2016, the two had to come together apparently to promote many projects and as part of the promotion, they also allowed T Magazine to publish some of their email exchanges, which Vox termed as “Foer awkwardly email-flirting with Natalie Portman.”
‘We’ve known each other through many other firsts’
In one email, the 46-year-old reportedly said, “You came to one of my first readings for my first novel, and in the 15 years of friendship that have followed, we’ve known each other through many other firsts.” Another one from him read, “It’s Thursday, garbage day. One of the garbage days, I should say. Thursday and Sunday are garbage days. Tuesday is garbage and recycling day. Monday and Tuesday are alternate-side parking days, which makes Tuesday — parking, garbage, and recycling — a very special day, indeed.”
“Not even Shabbat can stop the clock — two have moved from the future to the past in the course of our having this exchange,” Foer had added. The released exchange also included a message by Portman, which said, “An ex-boyfriend of mine used to call me ‘Moscow', because he said I was always looking out the window sadly, like ‘Moscow’, like some Russian novel or Chekhov play… I have that longing, yearning, it’s-better-over-there tendency… Do you remember how in the ’90s there was this sort of ‘sad girl chic’? Like ‘Reviving Ophelia’ and Fiona Apple, and just a lot of sad, beautiful girls.”