Danielle Spencer breaks silence on 'fracturing the family' in Russell Crowe split
The actor and musician confessed that the aftermath of the relationship breakdown brought “days and moments” of difficulty and unhappiness.
Danielle Spencer has opened up about initiating her 2018 divorce from ex-husband Russell Crowe.
In a new interview on the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, the 56-year-old actor and musician said she had to deal with a “sense of guilt” when the couple first separated in 2012.
“It’s really sad breaking up with somebody that you’ve known for so long, that you’ve had children with,” she told podcast host Sarrah Le Marquand.
“Me kind of breaking up the family – and it felt very much like I was driving that – so I had to deal with my almost sense of guilt that I was fracturing the family, but obviously I did it for a number of reasons and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it needed to happen.”
Listen to Danielle Spencer on a new episode of Something To Talk About:
Spencer told Le Marquand that although she and Crowe remain great friends, the separation and the years spent co-parenting their two sons, now 19-year-old Tennyson and 22-year-old Charlie, wasn’t all smooth sailing.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult,” she said.
“I don’t want to make out that the whole thing was… it’s all just been lovely and everything’s fine... There were days and moments where obviously things were not fine, were tense, we were unhappy and it’s sad.”
Speaking on Something To Talk About, the former Pacific Drive star said the couple started out as friends, so it was easier for them to slip back into those roles.
“We started as a friendship working together on the movie The Crossing,” she explained during the episode. “And we were friends for quite a while before we even got together.
“So the respect was kind of there, the friendship was there,” she continued.
“And to me it would just be ridiculous to end up completely estranged or enemies after that kind of connection and having two children together.
“So I was just determined to kind of keep things kind of as calm and peaceful as I could and [I] kind of keep reminding him of our past and he’s aware of that and I don’t think at any point he wanted us to be at odds.”
Spencer, who has been with her new partner Adam Long since 2016, said she’s learnt to stop reading the headlines about the “friction” between her and Crowe’s girlfriend of five years, American actor Britney Theriot.
“I can’t change what people are going to write, so I just really don’t take it on board and I really hope that Russell’s partner does not take it on board because I’m sure she really does not enjoy those sorts of articles,” she said.
“It’s unfair and it must be difficult for her when the focus is on this marriage, you know, and the children.
“She’s his partner now and it must be tedious for her to kind of have those things thrown at her.”
Listen to Danielle Spencer on a new episode of Something To Talk About:
Listen to the full interview with Danielle Spencer in conversation with host Sarrah Le Marquand now on a new episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About.
See her full cover shoot in Stellar today, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar, click here.
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Originally published as Danielle Spencer breaks silence on 'fracturing the family' in Russell Crowe split
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