Willem Dafoe on His Low-Planning Wedding with His Wife of 19 Years
Willem Dafoe married Giada Colagrande, an Italian director, in 2005, a year after he separated from his long-term partner.
They made their public appearance debut as a couple at the Cannes Film Festival. However, Willem had known Giada for years before they started dating.
“I met my wife on the street in Rome in 2004,” Willem shared with The Guardian. “I knew of her because I’d seen her films, and we had some mutual friends,” the actor added.
Willem also admitted on Live with Kelly and Ryan that one of the perks of having a director as a wife is that they could work together and “have special information” when making films. However, the perks also come with a disadvantage in that several problems “bleeds into your personal life.”
As plenty of private Hollywood couples hold their weddings with a small and intimate ceremony, Willem and Giada brought the private ceremony to a whole new level! Willem recalled that their wedding planning “was very impulsive and romantic.”
“We were having lunch, and I said: ‘Do you want to get married tomorrow?’” he said, only to be informed by the City Hall that they, indeed, could get married the following day. Their wedding was witnessed by two people, Willem’s manager and Giada’s editor.
Willem is still very much head-over-heels with his wife. According to Page Six, the veteran actor would rather attend events alone than bring his friends as a plus one.
“I got friends to hang out with at these events,” Willem said. “But the best person that I would want to turn up with out of all the women in the room is my wife,” he added.
How Long Were Willem Dafoe and Elizabeth LeCompte Together?
Before Giada, Willem Dafoe was in a long-term relationship with (also) a director named Elizabeth LeCompte.
The couple started dating in 1977 and welcomed their son, Jack, five years later. Willem and Elizabeth met through The Wooster Group, an experimental theater company Willem founded.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2009, Willem revealed their separation was due to their different view on marriage.
“To her, marriage represented ownership, and I respect that,” the actor explained. “But after a while, I was more interested in getting married than she was,” Willem continued.
Despite their separation, Willem has no problem giving a shout-out to his baby mama in an interview with Market Watch, where he claimed that his relationship with Elizabeth “really shaped” him through the “formative years.”
Who Is Willem Dafoe’s First-Ever Girlfriend?
When he was 15, Willem Dafoe revealed he was dating a childhood sweetheart, Wendy Witt. The old flame dated for two years before parted ways for an undisclosed reason.
In his interviews, Willem never really shared anything about Wendy, considering the lady isn’t from the industry and probably already has her own family. However, he recalled that his dates with Wendy mainly were done in his family’s TV room.
“We had a television room that was respected as a private place, so when you came home with a date, you could watch TV,” Willem shared. “They’d rather we were doing it there than in a car or something,” the actor continued.