Director dishes on affair with Twilight star
‘ EXCITING’ MISTAKE
Way back in a not-so-distant 2012, one particular scandal sent the rabid Kristen Stewart/ Robert Pattinson shippers gasping for air. It happened when news broke that Stewart had been having an affair with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders.
At the time, Stewart was in a highly publicized relationship with fellow Twilighter Pattinson, and Sanders was married to actress Liberty Ross (who, incidentally, also happened to be playing Stewart’s mother in Snow White). When intimate photos of the pair leaked, it was Stewart who was continuously pressed to comment, with nary a word from the Sanders camp – until now.
While promoting his latest movie, Ghost in the Shell, Sanders finally addressed the affair to Metro U. K.: “You never know what ’ s c oming in life. Around every corner there’s s omething unexpected, and that’s life. You just have to brush yourself off and continue moving forward the best you can. Everyone makes mistakes. I am bound to make more mistakes, and I wouldn’t expect my life to be exciting if I didn’t.”
He went on to say that he should no longer be punished as a way to prevent him from working and making “art,” such as Ghost in the Shell, which continues to tank at the box office under a climbing pile of mixed reviews: “If you took people off the table for a momentary lapse, there would be no one making art.”
After the affair was exposed, Sanders apologized to Ross and their children in a statement: “I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family. My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world. I love them with all my heart. I am praying that we can get through this together.”
Stewart also published an unforgettable statement in apology to Pattinson: “I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
Meanwhile, Ross, who later filed for divorce, labelled that time of her life as “horrible” in a 2013 Vanity Fair profile, adding, “It was really the worst, really the worst. ... I have no words to describe what we went through. But I think, for me, something always has to completely die for there to be a rebirth. And, for me, I feel like I’m going through a rebirth.”
In a 2014 interview with Esquire, Pattinson laughed off the incident, saying, “Shit happens, you know? It’s just young people. It’s normal! And honestly, who gives a shit?”
Ross went on to marry music producer Ji mmy Iovine in 2016, while Pattinson is currently engaged to singer FKA twigs, and Stewart is currently in a relationship with model Stella Maxwell.