Sean Penn has expressed his contentment with single life after going through three divorces.
The Academy Award-winning actor has had several high-profile relationships throughout his decades in the public eye, including romances with Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, and indie singer Jewel.
Most notably, Penn, 63, was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989, Robin Wright from 1996 to 2010, and Animal Kingdom actor Leila George from 2020 to 2022.
Following the end of his two-year marriage to George, Penn, 63, has not pursued another serious relationship.
In a recent interview, he told The New York Times that he feels “thrilled every day” to be single.
“I’m just free,” he told the publication. “If I’m going to be in a relationship, I’m still going to be free, or I’m not going to be in it, and I’m not going to be hurting. I don’t sense I’ll have my heart broken by romance again.”
Australian-born actor George filed for divorce from Penn just one year after their July 2020 nuptials, which Penn described as a “Covid wedding” during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“By that, I mean it was a county commissioner on Zoom and we were at the house with my two children and her brother, and we did it that way,” he explained at the time.
Elsewhere in the interview, published on Saturday (22 June), Penn shared his take on some of the highly publicised arguments he had with Madonna during their marriage between 1985 and 1989.
According to the Mystic River star, Madonna had been worried on one occasion because there were guns in the house and so called the police, which led to the intrusion of “a freaking SWAT team” in his home.
“I said, ‘I’m not coming out. I’m going to finish my breakfast.’ The next thing I knew, windows were being broken all around the house and they came in,” said the actor, who was then placed in handcuffs.
Of his relationship with the singer today, Penn said that Madonna is “someone I love” and that they’ve planned to collaborate on a video for a peace summit in Ukraine.
In contrast, Penn said that reaching a comfortable rapport with his ex-wife Wright took a longer time. He and the House of Cards star share a daughter, Dylan, 33, and a son, Hopper, 30.
“It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved,” Penn noted. “It took Robin and I quite a while. There was a lot of drama.”
He added: “Much more important to repair it if there are kids involved, but no easy swing, right?”
