Sean Penn Is ''Surprised to Be in Love'' at 54 and if He Marries Charlize Theron He'd Consider It "a First Marriage''

Two-time Oscar winner opens up to Esquire U.K. about not being fully "informed" when he got married the first two times

By Natalie Finn Jan 29, 2015 2:31 AMTags
Sean Penn, Charlize Theron Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP

Sean Penn has been married twice—but it turns out he doesn't quite see it that way.

Asked about the possibility of tying the knot for a third time, particularly with his reported fiancée Charlize Theron, the two-time Oscar winner says in the March 2015 issue of Esquire UK, "You say I've been married twice before but I've been married under circumstances where I was less informed than I am today, so I wouldn't even consider a third marriage, I'd consider it a first marriage on its own terms if I got married again. I mean, I like the tradition."

Penn was married to Madonna from 1985 until 1989, and then he and Robin Wright divorced in 2010 after about 14 years of marriage.

"I'm very friendly with my first ex-wife," he told the magazine, per Britain's Daily Mail. "I would say that I'm on extremely good terms with the children I share with my second ex-wife."

If that's the case, then no wonder he's pleasantly surprised to have found a woman he'd consider swapping vows with.

"I'm surprised to be in love," Penn, 54, admitted. "Lot of reasons. Fifty-three years old [when they got together] plus finally beginning to figure out why you haven't been happy in a single relationship? It could seem too late."

Penn and Theron have been together for more than a year now, and sources have told E! News that they are planning on having a wedding one of these days. (And ex Robin Wright could theoretically be whistling the same tune. The 48-year-old House of Cards star is back on with at least onetime fiancé Ben Foster, 34.) 

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

"To run into somebody now who you care about is a much passionate, deeper, truer and—God!—a much happier feeling," Penn, who also directed Theron in his upcoming drama The Last Face, also gushed to Esquire. "It's a lot more romantic and a lot more fulfilling to be in a relationship and to think you're a good person within it."

Asked point blank, he responded, "Yes, I'd get married again. I'm in love with a woman and home is where the heart is, right?"

The March 2015 issue of Esquire U.K. goes on sale Jan. 29.