Billy Bob Thornton abruptly leaving his fiancée, actress Laura Dern, for another woman made headlines back in the day. Dern was among those caught by surprise. Her life suddenly turned upside-down and she needed time to recover from the shock she experienced.
Speaking of Thornton’s decision to marry Angelina Jolie, who was twenty years his junior, Dern said caused a detour in her relationship plans.
As per E! Online, Thornton and Dern started dating in 1997, shortly after she separated from Jeff Goldblum and while he was still in the process of divorcing his fourth wife, Pietra Dawn Cherniak.
Thornton and Jolie, who was quite wild back in the 1990s, met on the set of Pushing Tin in 1999, unaware that they would be tying the knot just months later. While Thornton was engaged to Dern, Jolie was in a relationship with Timothy Hutton. In May, the couple made their marriage official with the help of a minister in L.A. At the time, Jolie was 24.
Their relationship was a fascinating one and attracted the attention of many.
During the first year of marriage, the two went over the top with their public displays of affection: Jolie tattooed his name on her, they wore vials of each other’s blood around their necks, and engaged in excessive PDA. However, their relationship didn’t last long, with trouble arising in less than two years.