Actor Russell Crowe And Wife Of Nine Years Split

Posted: Oct 14 2012

SYDNEY – Oscar-winner Russell Crowe has split from his musician wife of nine years, Danielle Spencer.

Crowe and Spencer have two children together, Charles and Tennyson, aged eight and six.

Actor Russell Crowe and his partner of nine years, Danielle Spencer, are calling it quits. Photo Credit: SMH

The decision to split up is said to be amicable with Crowe and Spencer committed to protecting their boys at this tough time.

Crowe and Spencer first met 22 years ago on the set of the film, The Crossing, where they enjoyed a relationship before splitting up when Crowe headed overseas to pursue fame.

Crowe had a much-publicized romance with actress Meg Ryan, before returning to Australia and realizing Spencer was the woman he wanted to marry.

He proposed to Spencer in a Sydney restaurant in December 2002, after asking her father Don Spencer for permission to marry his daughter.

The pair were married in a purpose-built chapel at Crowe’s farm in Nana Glen, near Coffs Harbour in April, 2003. But they have been based in Sydney ever since.

The couple, considered to be one of the more solid partnerships in Australian showbiz, faced rumors about their relationship in June when Spencer was pictured on a night out with Damian Whitewood, her dance partner from Seven’s Dancing With the Stars, at The Star in Sydney.

Spencer, quiet and unassuming, was the woman who tamed the Gladiator with her calm and steady nature. She has long been a patient and calming influence on Crowe, who gained notoriety for a volatile temper after a phone-throwing incident seven years ago in New York, because he couldn’t get through to his wife in Australia.

Spencer refused to mollycoddle her husband and said at the time: “I’m not condoning his behavior. I don’t want to make excuses for him, because I’m certainly not.”

“But I do understand when you’re apart the loneliness kicks in,” she said.

As parents, both Crowe and Spencer have been committed to giving their sons as normal a childhood as possible, despite their father’s worldwide fame.

Five years ago Crowe wrote a letter to his sons, as part of a National Trust time capsule, which said: “I know I will have brought you up to love your mother above all.”

“You have no idea how much our lives have been blessed by you,” Crowe wrote.

It is believed both Crowe and Spencer are determined to protect their sons’ privacy at this difficult time, with both boys continung to attend school in Sydney.

Crowe is in the US filming the biblical epic Noah, while Spencer remains in Sydney with their two sons.

The actor has had one of the busiest periods of his filming career, making back to back movies overseas.

He has seven films coming out in the next year: Man with the Iron Fist, Les Miserables, Broken City, Superman, Noah and his next project The Winter’s Tale, with Colin Farrell and Will Smith.