Simon Baker and Wife Rebecca Rigg Break Up After 29 Years

The Mentalist star Simon Baker and his wife Rebecca Rigg have announced that they have broken up after more than two decades.

By Corinne Heller Jan 29, 2021 10:35 PMTags
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It's over between The Mentalist series star Simon Baker and wife Rebecca Rigg.

The Australian-born acting couple quietly split last April after 29 years together, E! News confirmed on Friday, Jan. 29. Baker, 51, and Riggs, 53, said a joint statement, "We remain close friends and our three children will always be the most important focus of our lives."

The actor, also known for playing Christian Thompson in the film The Devil Wears Prada, and his wife, known for her role on the early '00s sci-fi series Farscape, share three adult children—daughter Stella Baker, who is 27 and also an actress, and sons Claude Baker, 22, and Harry Baker, 19.

Baker and Rigg played love interests on the short-lived '90s Australian soap E Street. However, they actually met on a blind date in 1991, Australia's Daily Telegraph reported. The two wed in the '90s in two separate ceremonies. One took place in Australia and the other, a smaller ceremony, was held in 1998 on the beach in Carmel, Calif., with Stella, then 5 years old, in attendance, Baker said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2010.

In 2015, Baker told the newspaper that Rigg was "the greatest woman any man could ever hope to make a life with," adding, "Marrying her was the best decision I ever made."

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In recent years, they've mostly lived in Los Angeles and pursued their acting careers in Hollywood, where the actor filmed the CBS series The Mentalist, which aired between 2008 and 2015. Over the years, Rigg occasionally accompanied Baker to premieres, award shows such as the Emmys and the Golden Globes, Vanity Fair's 2012 Oscars after party and other celebrity events. Despite their public appearances, the couple remained largely private and low-key.

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"We don't mean to be impressive," Baker told Australian news site The New Daily in 2018. "I don't think either of us wants to be the poster children for impressive relationships."