Julia’s Wasting Away
Fears for Julia Roberts — and her marriage — after her shocking weight loss is revealed
To hear Julia Roberts tell it, her life is as picture-perfect as the ending of one of her romantic comedies. “There’s no way to describe it without sounding sappy or ridiculous, because everything in my mind ends with an exclamation point,” the Pretty Woman star recently said in an interview. She claims her husband of nearly 16 years, cinematographer Danny Moder — father of her twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, 13, and son Henry, 10 — is the reason for her happiness. “We have these three human beings who are just a complete reflection of the affection we have for each other,” she said. “All roads lead back to Danny.”
Or do they? Though Julia, 50, paints a rosy portrait of her marriage to Danny, 49, In Touch has learned that the couple are hanging on by a thread — and have even lived in separate houses in recent years (see box on next page). “They are having serious relationship trouble, and some friends think they’ll divorce,” says one source. While the two
have butted heads frequently over the years, their latest issue is Julia’s newly amped-up career. “Until recently, Julia had pretty much been a stay-at-home soccer mom, but she’s stepped up her acting and producing game while Danny has assumed the role of house husband and sports coach,” says the source, who adds that Danny has grown unhappy. “It’s caused a lot of tension between them.” It’s also caused Julia to not eat or sleep and to lose a great deal of weight, enough to spark buzz about a health crisis. The 5-foot-9 star intended to shed 10 pounds before shooting the Amazon thriller series Homecoming earlier this year, but she’s continued to drop weight as her marriage crumbles. She has lost nearly three times what she intended to — and now weighs 105 pounds, the source says. Between her marriage crumbling and trying to juggle too many major responsibilities, says the source, “Julia has turned into a rail-thin wreck.”
MAJOR STRUGGLES Sadly, Julia’s weight issues are causing even more problems between her and Danny. The quiet LA native, who prefers surfing and the
outdoors to the party scene, “is worried because he believes Julia is putting too much pressure on herself to maintain a Hollywood-approved weight,” says the source, adding that their discussions about it have led to huge arguments. “In reality, she is simply being stretched too thin. She’s trying to be all things to all people.”
While working on various projects — she also filmed the drama Ben Is Back this year — Julia is also “racing around” trying to make her kids’ soccer matches and clear her schedule to be sure she can attend the family’s annual vacation in Hawaii in July and spend as much time as possible with her brood while they’re out of school. Says the source: “Summers are really important to Danny because so many of his fond childhood memories are of his summers in Malibu. She feels a lot of pressure to be there for her family.”
Bailing on work isn’t an option, either. After scaling back considerably over the past decade — Julia has averaged about one movie per year — she realizes she must work to keep getting offers. “She doesn’t want to run the risk of losing her grip on her
Julia needs to slow down and take care of herself so she can gain some weight back” — AN INSIDER
career,” says the source. At the same time, she feels guilty for taking on so many jobs when she discouraged Danny from working on projects that filmed outside of LA during their marriage. “Because of all of the pressure she put on him, she worries she looks like a hypocrite.”
OMINOUS BEGINNING The couple had issues from the outset of their relationship. Danny was still wed to makeup artist Vera Moder when he and Julia fell in love in 2000 on the set of the movie The Mexican, where he worked as a camera assistant. (At the time, Vera allegedly refused to grant Danny a divorce, and Julia was famously photographed out wearing a T-shirt that read “A low Vera.”) The illicit beginning to their romance “created deepseated trust issues for Julia and Danny,” says the source. “When Danny would leave for cameraman and cinematographer jobs away from home, Julia was insecure that he would cheat on her, the same way he cheated on his first wife.”
Julia’s paranoia only got worse when she filmed the India-set movie Eat Pray Love and began practicing Hinduism in 2010. The religion’s concept of karma haunted Julia. “She thought about the way she started things off with Danny and had a nagging feeling that she would be confronted with karmic justice one day,” says the source. “She thought it was going to come back around and bite her. And it has led to many arguments between Julia and Danny.” But that’s far from the only thing they’ve fought about. Though Danny has made a name for himself in Hollywood as a cinematographer, he doesn’t pull in nearly as much as Julia, who has commanded north of $20 million per movie and is estimated to be worth $250 million. (A divorce would undoubtedly lead to a battle over her fortune.) “He has strong feelings about being the man of the house, having his own career and traveling for his job,” says the source. And while Danny loves being an active, engaged participant in his kids’ lives, adds the source, “He hasn’t always been happy about his career choices, and it’s dragging Julia down as well.”
ON THE BRINK Things have grown so tense between the two, loved ones have taken notice. “Friends are worried that Julia’s putting too much stress on herself and could end up in the hospital with exhaustion,” says the source. “They’ve offered help by taking the kids for playdates and sleepovers and even bring dinner to the family sometimes, just to give her one less thing to do.”
It could be too little, too late. While Julia knows she is extremely thin and is trying to put weight back on, according to the source, her marriage might be far beyond repair. “Deep down Julia and Danny love each other,” reveals the source, “but there are just so many cracks, it may not last.” ◼