Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart caused a bit of a stir when they first began dating in 2002, caused in large part to the 22 year age difference between the two. Despite early predictions that the May-December romance would soon peter out, Ford and Flockhart have been going strong and only grown more in love in the ten years since they got married. From their first meeting to now, the love between Flockhart and Ford has never been more real.
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How Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart Met
Before Harrison Ford met his future wife Calista Flockhart, he was definitely one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors. He’d been married twice before, first to Mary Marquardt with whom he shares two sons, Benjamin and Willard. The pair married in 1964 but divorced in 1979. Soon after, in 1983, Ford married his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, though the two separated about 17 years later in 2000 before finalizing their divorce a few years later. From that marriage, Ford gained two more children, a son, Malcolm, and a daughter, Georgia.
For her part, Calista Flockhart enjoyed several high-profile romances during her single years. She dated Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley on and off from 1997 to 1999. She also briefly dated director Sam Mendes that same year and was even rumored to be romantically linked to Robert Downey Jr, another Ally McBeal alum, in 2000. Though those romances didn’t last, Flockhart would soon have a chance run-in with the man who’d eventually become her husband.
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Ford and Flockhart met for the first time at the 2002 Golden Globes Awards. Though there have been rumors over the years that Flockhart purposefully spilled wine on Ford in order to see him again, the couple vehemently denied it in a 2003 interview with Hello! Magazine. “She certainly did not purposely spill a glass of wine on me,” Harrison told the outlet, with Flockhart chiming in,
We were having a conversation for maybe 20 minutes before the wine spilled, and the truth is, Harrison spilled the wine!
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The sparks flew right away, and Ford soon invited Flockhart out for dinner. In turn, Flockhart reached out to her Ally McBeal co-star James Marsden to come with her. Marsden recalled the night, and his initial skepticism, in an interview with Playboy, via Express, “She said, ‘Come to dinner with me and Harrison.’ I’m like, ‘Me, you and him?’” Luckily the night wasn’t as intimate as Marsden feared it would be, and there was a small group of people also attending. Marsden soon found that his role was to be Flockhart’s “wingman,” a mantel he took up with good grace. From the start of the evening, it was clear just who had the majority of Ford’s attention, Marsden explained.
We had dinner someplace in Brentwood (Los Angeles) and then went back to his house. He put music on and made everybody drinks. He was giggly and goofy around her but pretty aloof with the rest of us.
Before long, however, Ford made it loud and clear to Marsden that the younger actor’s presence was no longer required. “Anyway, we had more drinks, he played more music,” Marsden continued, “and then at some point he gave me a look that said, ‘OK, you’ve got to get the [expletive] out of here.’” From that point on, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart were an item.
The two stayed pretty lowkey about their relationship in the beginning, especially as Ford was still legally married to his second wife. In 2003, however, the two decided to publicly declare their love for each other, with Ford telling Hello!,
I’m in love. Romantic love is one of the most exciting and fulfilling kinds of love and I think there is a potential for it at any stage of your life. I was not surprised that I was able to fall in love, and I wasn’t surprised that I did.
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Asked about the 22 year age difference between the two of them, Flockhart answered honestly, “It doesn’t faze me. Sometimes I even say, ‘Wow, I keep forgetting that he’s 22 years older than me.’ It doesn’t factor into our relationship at all.” The Brothers & Sisters star added, “I like the way he looks first thing in the morning. It’s not handsome, it’s more cute. He looks like a little boy.” By then, the two had grown closer than ever and had even moved in together. They dated for several years before tying the knot in 2009.
Becoming A Family
After moving in together, the Indiana Jones star soon found himself a father for the fifth time after meeting Calista Flockhart’s adopted son, Liam. She’d adopted the boy a year before first meeting Ford, but his bond with the boy was effortless from the beginning. “I’m good at changing diapers,” Ford once joked about finding himself caring for a toddler again. “No sense letting that experience go to waste.” Flockhart confessed that the two men in her life shared an early love of aviation, telling Hello! in the 2003 interview, “Liam woke up this morning and first thing out of his mouth was ‘I want to go on an airplane.’” In fact, that father/son connection continues to this day. When it came time to drop 19-year-old Liam off for college in August, Ford flew the college-bound kid and Flockhart in his private plane.
Where Flockhart And Ford Stand Now
Perhaps it’s because of their individual star power, or because of their 22 year age difference, but Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have become a steady presence in the tabloids, with many outlets speculating that the pair’s marriage has become troubled in recent years. New Idea claimed Flockhart was threatening to leave the Indiana Jones actor over his love of aviation, especially after he suffered a “near-miss.” “She’s had enough,” a supposed “pal” of the actress told the outlet.
“Every time he goes up in that plane, she holds her breath until he’s back and the number of near-misses and crashes he’s had can’t be ignored,” the tattler continued. Gossip Cop highly doubted that the actress, who’s been very publicly supportive of her husband’s favorite pastime, would suddenly balk at it after nearly 20 years. We checked in with Ford’s spokesperson, who assured us the tabloid’s sordid tale was “absolutely false.”
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Woman’s Day followed up that bogus report with one of its own, claiming the spouses’ marriage was “on the rocks” because of Ford’s reckless flying as well as the fact that he was a “grumpy old man” who was “pretty set in his ways.” In order to get to the bottom of the rumor, Gossip Cop reached out to Flockhart’s spokesperson who told us on the record that the tall tale was completely “false.”
Proving all the nay-sayers and doom-and-gloomers wrong, Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford’s marriage has stood the test of time. Despite the endless gossip and rumor-mongering from the tabloids, Ford and Flockhart remain very much in love and very pleased with their choice in partners. There aren’t many couples in Hollywood who can claim the same sort of longevity in their marriage as these two, so it’s clear that they both chose very well when it comes to love.