After 18 years of marriage, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith decided to call it quits in 2015.
The now-ex couple first met and fell for one another during the shooting of the 1995 romantic comedy Too Much, and it took only a year for them to tie the knot.
They share one daughter together, and the actor helped raise Griffith’s daughter, 50 Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson.
Shortly before their divorce was finalized, Banderas started dating another woman, Nicole Kimpel, whom he met at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival while still married to Griffith.
“Nicole was not the motive of my divorce,” the actor said, per The Arizona Republic. “I met her at the Cannes Festival last year but we both knew where we were. I was still a married man, although things were already heading the way they have now ended up.”
He added, “Nicole told me, ‘You’ve got to solve your problems first, then we’ll see.’ So there’s no direct connection to my breakup with another woman, it’s not like that.”
Kimplel runs a fashion brand together with her sister, and she’s also a model and a financial advisor.
Although the two have been dating for quite some time, they still write romantic messages to one another through the social media and enjoy their time together by attending parties and various events, decorating for Christmas, and taking long walks at the beach. What’s most, Kimpel takes great care of Banderas, and she even saved his life ones, literally.
Back in 2017, the Thick and Thieves star had a heart attack and Kimpel put an aspirin, which she bough the day before for her headache, on his tongue, and that saved his life, Banderas shared with Jimmy Kimmel in 2019.
Speaking of Banderas, Kimpel says she doesn’t see him as a celebrity, but rather as her partner.
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“We’re really happy together and I don’t see him as a film star,” Nicole continued. “To me, he’s the man in my life. He has so many great qualities and talents without even taking into account his professional success.”
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