Inside Molly Ringwald's Short-Lived, Forgotten Marriage From The Early 2000s

Molly Ringwald has been happily married for decades, making it easy to forget she was actually married once before. A few years after becoming a fan-favorite star of the '80s with her iconic roles in "Sixteen Candles" (1984), "The Breakfast Club" (1985), and "Pretty in Pink" (1986), Ringwald moved to Paris for what was supposed to be a short stint. "My plan was just to go there, do this movie, and then come back. But I fell in love with France, and then eventually I fell in love with a person," she said on Refinery29's "Unstyled" podcast in 2019.

The person was French novelist Valery Lameignère, whom the "Riverdale" cast member met shortly after she arrived in Paris in 1991. In a 1996 interview with The New York Times, she said crossing paths with Lameignère was among the happiest events of her life. Not much about him is known other than he was a writer and translator and that he and Ringwald had discussed the possibility of moving to Los Angeles together. That didn't happen, though. After being together for several years, Ringwald and Lameignère tied the knot in July 1999 and settled in Bordeaux. But the marriage was short-lived.

Ringwald has never discussed her ex-husband much, but she has mentioned suffering a late-term miscarriage while married to him. And her divorce paperwork suggests the marriage had some serious problems. In her filing, she cited "cruel and inhuman treatment" as the grounds for divorce, People reported in November 2002. Ringwald seemingly has no interest in bringing up the particulars of that time to the surface. What matters is that she went on to find love and happiness.

Shortly after filing for divorce from Valery Lameignère, Molly Ringwald returned to the U.S. By then, she had already found love again in Panio Gianopoulos, who is also a writer. "Today, the 'getaway car' and I are together 22 years! Happy anniversary to us! 3 kids, 3 dogs, 1 cat and a lot of love. Best decision I ever made. Here's to 22 more, at least," she captioned a 2023 Instagram post. Her post suggests she met Gianopoulos in 2001, before she officially ended her marriage to Lameignère.

Their relationship moved fast. Ringwald's now grown-up daughter, Mathilda, was born in October 2003, less than a year after the end of her first marriage. Even though they started a family right away, Ringwald and Gianopoulos actually took their time to make their relationship official, tying the knot several years later in July 2007. They expanded the brood in July 2009, when Ringwald welcomed fraternal twins Adele and Roman. Because Ringwald was in her 40s when the twins were born, she felt they had been a "gift," she told People in 2009. "I was so, so lucky to be 41 and to be so healthy during this pregnancy," she said.

Ringwald had always wanted to have a family, but she feared she may have lost her chance after her divorce. "I was definitely wondering if I was able to find love again," she said. "I was nervous. There was a lot of trepidation." But decades later, she and Gianopoulos are still going as strong as ever.