Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke: Inside Hollywood’s Most Enduring Co-Parenting Story

When people search for Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, they’re usually looking for one of two things: the story of their whirlwind marriage and painful public divorce, or an update on how two A-list actors managed to raise two remarkably successful children — Maya Hawke and Levon Hawke — without the bitterness that so often follows a Hollywood split. This article covers both, pulling together the full timeline from their 1997 meeting on a sci-fi film set to their reunion at their daughter’s wedding decades later.

How Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke Met

Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke’s story began on the set of the 1997 science-fiction film “Gattaca,” where the two co-starred as a couple navigating a genetically stratified future society. Off-screen, the chemistry translated into a real relationship, and the pair married the following year, in 1998.

At the time, both actors were already established names. Thurman had broken through with roles in “Pulp Fiction” and “Dangerous Liaisons,” while Hawke had built a following through “Dead Poets Society” and “Reality Bites.” Their union instantly became one of the most closely watched celebrity relationships of the late 1990s.

The Early Years of Their Marriage

The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke, in July 1998, shortly after tying the knot. Their son, Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke, followed in January 2002. During these years, both Thurman and Hawke continued acting steadily, balancing high-profile film careers — including Thurman’s now-iconic turn in “Kill Bill” — with raising a young family largely out of the tabloid spotlight, at least by the standards of the time.

The Divorce and the Fallout

Cracks in the marriage became public around 2003. Uma Thurman filed for divorce, and the split was finalized in 2005, ending a partnership that had lasted roughly seven years. The timing coincided with rumors that Hawke had been unfaithful while filming a movie in Montreal, a storyline that dominated tabloid coverage for months.

Both actors have since pushed back on the idea that infidelity was the sole cause of the breakup. Speaking to “20/20” in 2004, Hawke said the couple’s problems predated his time in Montreal, framing the split as the product of longer-standing issues rather than a single incident.

Thurman, for her part, has consistently declined to criticize Hawke publicly, even amid intense media scrutiny. In a 2006 interview with Parade magazine, she said she needed to keep the peace for the sake of her family and had avoided saying anything negative about her ex-husband. She also expressed open frustration with the volume of press coverage the divorce generated, at one point telling the outlet she was simply another woman whose marriage hadn’t worked out.

Why the Marriage Ended

Neither Thurman nor Hawke has offered a single definitive explanation for the split. In more recent interviews, including a 2025 conversation with GQ Hype, Hawke described the media attention surrounding the relationship as humiliating, even when coverage was framed positively. He has reflected on how the intensity of the spotlight made an already difficult breakup harder to navigate, particularly with young children involved.

Life After the Divorce: New Marriages and Families

Both actors moved on to new relationships relatively quickly, though each built a lasting second marriage.

Ethan Hawke married Ryan Shawhughes in June 2008. Notably, Shawhughes had worked as a nanny for Hawke’s children with Thurman before the two became a couple, a detail that drew some tabloid attention at the time. Hawke and Shawhughes went on to have two daughters together: Clementine Jane Hawke, born in 2008, and Indiana Hawke, born a few years later. Unlike Maya and Levon, Clementine and Indiana have largely stayed out of the public eye.

Uma Thurman also moved forward personally, becoming engaged to financier Arpad “Arki” Busson not long after her divorce from Hawke was finalized. While that relationship did not lead to marriage, Thurman later became a mother again, and she has continued to build an extensive film and television résumé, including recent roles that have introduced her to new generations of viewers.

Co-Parenting Maya and Levon Hawke

Perhaps the most notable part of the Thurman-Hawke story is what happened after the cameras stopped focusing on their split: a sustained, publicly amicable co-parenting relationship.

Both Maya, born in 1998, and Levon, born in 2002, grew up largely shielded from the public commentary about their parents’ divorce, even as both eventually followed their parents into entertainment.

Maya Hawke’s Rise to Fame

Maya Hawke began her career as a model before making her screen debut in a BBC adaptation of “Little Women” in 2017. She became widely known in 2019 for playing Robin Buckley in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” and has since appeared in films including “Do Revenge,” “Asteroid City,” “Maestro,” and “Inside Out 2.” Beyond acting, Maya has built a parallel career as a musician working in the folk genre, releasing multiple studio albums.

Levon Hawke’s Path Into Acting

Levon Hawke took a different route, first earning a philosophy degree from Brown University before moving into acting. He made his on-screen debut in 2022 and his film debut in 2023’s “Wildcat,” a movie directed by his father. He has since appeared in “Blink Twice,” “Marty Supreme,” and other projects, while also stepping behind the camera as a playwright and director.

Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman’s Relationship Today

Despite the very public nature of their divorce, Thurman and Hawke have consistently avoided speaking ill of one another in interviews over the past two decades. Hawke has described making a personal commitment to his children to handle the split with as much discretion as possible, acknowledging in a 2025 Los Angeles Times interview that he envies people who manage to have amicable divorces, even as he worked to make his own as smooth as he could for Maya and Levon’s sake.

That effort appears to have paid off. In recent years, both actors have been photographed together at family milestones, most notably reuniting for Maya Hawke’s wedding — a moment widely covered as a symbol of how thoroughly the former couple repaired their relationship after the difficult years following their 2003 separation.

Key Takeaways

• Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke met on the set of “Gattaca” in 1997 and married in 1998.
• They share two children, Maya and Levon Hawke, both of whom have gone on to careers in entertainment.
• The couple divorced in 2005 following a highly publicized split in 2003.
• Both have since remarried or entered new relationships, with Hawke having two additional daughters with wife Ryan Shawhughes.
• Despite the difficulty of their divorce, Thurman and Hawke have maintained a respectful, low-drama co-parenting relationship, culminating in a public reunion at Maya Hawke’s wedding.

Their story has become something of a template for how former partners in the public eye can prioritize their children’s stability over lingering personal conflict — a narrative that continues to resonate with readers more than two decades after their marriage first made headlines.