Why Melanie Griffith And Don Johnson Split (& Got Married A Second Time)
Long before the on-again, off-again Hollywood couples like Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth, there were Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, two of the hottest actors of the '70s and '80s. Their decades-spanning romance started thanks in part to beer. "We were in the stairwell of this Anheuser-Busch Estate waiting for a setup," Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter about his meet-cute with Griffith. The two actors were on the set of the film "The Harrad Experiment" in 1972. "We started chitchatting. I thought he was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen," Griffith recalled about her first day with Johnson.
The movie set was a family outing as a teenage Griffith appeared in the film alongside her mother, famous actor Tippi Hedren, who immediately recognized that love was in the air. "They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her," Hedren said about Griffith and Johnson. These motherly instincts were spot on because sure enough, the couple tied the knot in 1976. Years later, Griffith and Johnson had a daughter together, Dakota Johnson, who followed in the career footsteps of her parents and grandmother.
Yet, this beautiful Hollywood pair couldn't go the distance on more than one occasion. "I keep my therapist on speed dial," Dakota joked about her parent's famously volatile relationship. Here's why Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson split — and then got married a second time.
Young love for Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson
Melanie Griffith was only 14 years old when she first met Don Johnson, who was seven years older. "I was skeptical because of her age but she was more woman than most of the girls I'd been going out with," the actor told People. About a year later, Griffith moved in with Johnson in Los Angeles, and he proposed on her 18th birthday. The two actors flew to Las Vegas to get hitched in 1976 but divorced about six months later. "It just wasn't working for us, but we couldn't split up," Griffith explained of her nuptials with Johnson. "We thought it might work better if we were married. It didn't. I got married in order to end the relationship," she confessed. As for Johnson, the actor admitted that he may have also rushed into the marriage. He even confessed that the day before the impromptu wedding, "I had been with Marjorie Wallace most of the night." This was starting to look like a pattern for Johnson, who had been married and divorced twice before settling down with Griffith.
Both actors appeared to be done for good as they moved on and started separate families. Johnson linked up with fellow actor Patti D'Arbanville and welcomed a son together. Johnson also was romantically connected with Barbra Streisand, and the two even recorded a duet called "Till I Loved You." For Griffith, she married actor Steven Bauer and also had a son.
The reconciliation between Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson
Though they were split up, Don Johnson reached out to Melanie Griffith in the late '80s to appear as a guest on "Miami Vice." Things didn't stay professional for long, as the two started to date off and on again. Griffith then had her standout performance in "Working Girl" but had a difficult time behind the scenes. The actor was nearing the end of her relationship with Steven Bauer and coped with cocaine and alcohol. "What I did was drink myself to sleep at night. If I wasn't with someone I was an unhappy girl," Griffith told Porter Magazine (via Daily Express). After she called it quits with Bauer and with Johnson separated from Patti D'Arbanville, the former husband and wife gave their romance another try. "What Melanie and I decided to do is to seize the moment and eliminate all the baggage that had accumulated over the years," Johnson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "We were always friends, and we always stayed in touch. There was always this connection. I can't explain it. It's almost like soulmates, and it always was," Griffith told People ahead of their second marriage in 1989.
It only took five years for the second attempt at marriage to fall apart. Griffith initiated the divorce in 1994, and a statement revealed that irreconcilable differences led to the separation. She also asked for primary custody of their daughter Dakota Johnson in the divorce terms.