How Scarlett Johansson Is Handling Her Divorce From Romain Dauriac Differently From Ryan Reynolds

Avengers star has been putting on a brave face since the split

By Francesca Bacardi Feb 09, 2017 6:09 PMTags

Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac are separated, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them.

The Avengers actress and art dealer called it quits in January after two years of marriage, but reports indicated that they had been over since the summer. But with one daughter together, it seems Scarlett and Romain are going to keep things amicable. The day the news broke of their separation, Scarlett and Romain attended an art exhibition together.

The former couple posed for photos with Simon Lee, the owner of the eponymous gallery, and everyone had ear-to-ear grins on their faces. Clearly, these two aren't hiding their co-parenting relationship, which is a far cry from how Scarlett and Ryan Reynolds' divorce went down in 2011.

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Scarlett Johansson & Romain Dauriac: Romance Rewind
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The one thing these two splits have in common is that Scarlett's game has always been privacy. She and Ryan were hardly ever seen together save for a couple of photos and Saturday Night Live appearances, and their marriage even went under the radar for a while. Scarlett and Romain treated the press the same way—keep their relationship and their daughter Rose out of the spotlight as much as possible. But the immediate aftermath of her splits is already very different.

When ScarJo and Ryan announced their split in December 2010, they released a simple statement: "After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we've decided to end our marriage," Ryan's rep said. "We entered our relationship with love and it's with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn't expected, it's certainly appreciated."

After that, there was nothing more to say. The estranged couple put up walls and seemed unwilling to address their split. They said all they needed to in the rep's statement, and that was that. The silence led to tons of tabloid fodder over the years, but eventually both Ryan and Scarlett opened up about their divorce.

"I'll say this: the media was not invited to my marriage, and they're definitely not invited into the divorce," Reynolds told Details in 2011. "There was no story and no scandal, so the narrative was just created for me. That was the most disturbing part. I wasn't angry. I absolutely predicted every beat of it. There's an entire economy around this sort of thing—therefore it's gotta happen one way or another."

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Scarlett Johansson's Many Loves
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In Glamour's May 2014 issue, three years after their divorce was finalized, the Lucy star admitted she didn't know what she wanted in a relationship before meeting Romain.

"I feel I know now more of what I need in a relationship, what I want in a relationship," she said while opening up about her first failed marriage. "And I know I have more tools to communicate, not just with my partner, but with myself."

She added, "Still, that's not necessarily any reflection of who I was married to or what was happening in my marriage, but really where I was in my life."

Two years after that, the Tony-winning actress implied her marriage to the Deadpool star ended because of their competitive natures. 

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"The logistics of being with another actor are challenging. There has to be a real understanding of how you share your time, especially when two people's careers are going at the same rate," she told Cosmopolitan's May 2016 issue. "Or even if one person is more successful than the other, that also proves challenging. There may be a competitive thing."

Fast-forward to 2017 and Romain and Scarlett are seemingly relaxed about everything. In addition to their public outing the night of their split news, Scarlett also attended the amfAR gala Wednesday night where she was honored as one of two Award of Courage recipients. It was her first red carpet appearance since the split, but by all appearances she looked as if life was seemingly perfect.

"I never saw her without a smile," an eyewitness told E! News.

Walking the red carpet, Scarlett left herself open to questioning about her award, the charity and, possibly, her pending divorce. While silence and privacy were the names of her game in 2011, it seems she's letting a private-but-relaxed attitude lead her through the splitsville seas this time around.