There were several red flags Meryl Streep and Don Gummer’s marriage was never going to last. For starters, when the two first met in 1978, Streep was mourning the tragic loss of her boyfriend and fellow actor John Cazale who died in March of that year after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Per People, she and Cazale dated for two years shortly after being cast in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” in 1976, and the pair remained together up until Cazale’s death. But while it seemed that they were each other’s greatest loves, it took only six months for the “Devil Wears Prada” star to find love again and settle down with Gummer after losing her ex-boyfriend. Speaking of Cazale one year after his death, Streep said in an interview with People, “The death is still very much with me. It has forced me to confront my own mortality, and once you do that, you look at things differently.”
In 2014, rumors once again plagued Streep and Gummer’s marriage after a biographer claimed that she had a sexual, extramarital affair with co-star Jack Nicholson while filming their movie “Ironweed” in 1987. Although Streep was quick to deny this rumor, sources claimed that it had taken a heavy toll on the couple and caused a rift in their marriage. “The book opened old wounds and that has led to bitter fights. Now, their marriage is struggling,” an insider told the National Enquirer (via Celeb Dirty Laundry).
