After Charlize Theron and Sean Penn split last summer, the Internet went wild with a rumor that she had been "ghosting" him before they broke up.
However, the actress covers the April issue of WSJ magazine and opens up about what really went down between the former couple.
"There is a need to sensationalize things," she said. "When you leave a relationship there has to be some f--king crazy story or some crazy drama. And the f--king ghosting thing, like literally, I still don't even know what it is. It's just its own beast."
She added, frankly, "We were in a relationship and then it didn't work anymore. And we both decided to separate. That's it."
Even more difficult to comprehend was the speculation surrounding her son, Jackson. "We were very, very new in a relationship. The stories that Sean was going to adopt Jackson, and all of that was not true," Theron revealed. "It's not something that happens in 18 months. You can't do that to a child."
However, she does admit that Penn was very understanding and careful with the situation regarding her son.
"There was an understanding that I was a single mom with a very young boy who I had to put in a situation where he understood that Mommy dates, but that he does not have a father, you know what I mean?" she explained. "You have to be very careful and very honest about that stuff. And Sean was great with all of that."
She continued, explaining why he wasn't involved in the adoption with her second child, August: "And in my honesty about wanting to have more kids, there was an understanding that a relationship had to go somewhere before it was going to be—what you hope for, which ultimately did not happen. I couldn't foresee that, but that stuff takes time and I think it's my responsibility as a mother to protect my child from that. And we had a very clear understanding. He knew that I was thinking about filing for another adoption, but that we weren't filing together."
You can read Theron's full interview in the April issue of WSJ magazine, on stands April 2.