Inside Jude Law's Complicated Love Life

Once described as "the most beautiful man who ever walked the earth" by co-star Naomi Watts, it's safe to say that Jude Law is popular with the ladies. Watts (who also called Law "an absolutely perfect oil painting" after People named him the Sexiest Man Alive) appeared opposite the British heartthrob in the film I Heart Huckabees, released in 2004. Law's first marriage had not long come to an end and he was one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, with women apparently lining up to try and snag him. He's been linked with dozens of famous females in the years that followed, and a number of unknown beauties, too. While some of his supposed dalliances remain the stuff of legend, others have been confirmed with photographs and, well, babies.

Law has a total of six children by four different women at this stage. While the A-lister is reportedly settled with the mother of the most recent addition, the road to his happy place has been a long and scandal-hit one. At one stage the actor's name became shorthand for cheat, exemplified by a joke at his expense in Sex and the City 2. "Little things like that used to freeze my blood," he told The Telegraph. "I would be left absolutely crippled." He's apparently a changed man nowadays, but will he ever live his wild past down?

From allegations of swinger parties to secret dates with Hollywood starlets, let's take a deep dive into Jude Law's complicated love life.

Sadie Frost struggled with depression during her marriage to Jude Law. Her issues reportedly began after their first son, Rafferty, was born in 1996. "Jude was away a lot, while I was sitting on the sofa, getting fatter and gripped by a nagging sense that I was jeopardising my love," she wrote in Crazy Days (via the Mirror). In her book, Frost revealed that she resorted to self-harm after a night of hard partying left her feeling overwhelmingly guilty. "I appeared to have cut myself," she recalled. "There was no sense of panic within me — I just felt empty."

Frost got the help she needed and became Mrs. Jude Law the following year. The couple moved Stateside for Law's career and welcomed their daughter, Iris, in 2000, at which point Frost's problems returned. "The more we had to socialise at grand dinner parties in Hollywood, the more I felt my self-esteem slipping away," she said. Her post-natal depression came back stronger than ever when second son, Rudy, was born in 2002. Frost's agent arranged a mental health check for her, and when the actor tried to bolt mid-assessment, she was sectioned for 28 days.

According to papers obtained by Reuters (per Entertainment Weekly), Frost blamed Law for exacerbating her condition. The mother-of-three claimed that her movie star husband's behavior towards the end forced her to seek treatment for depression on three separate occasions. The marriage was officially dissolved in 2003.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or call the National Alliance on Mental Illness Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264).

Before he got down on one knee and asked Sienna Miller to marry him in 2004, Jude Law is said to have went on a low-key date with an up-and-coming starlet by the name of Scarlett Johansson, fresh off her star-making turn opposite Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. Law was reportedly 31 at the time, while Johansson would have been a fresh-faced 19-year-old. Perhaps because of the age gap (or the fact that Law was supposed to be all loved up with Miller around then), the two allegedly sought out a quiet corner in the bar of London's swanky Dorchester Hotel, where nobody would bother them. "Both were smiling," an anonymous patron told the News of the World (via SFGate). "When they left Jude gave her a big hug and a kiss. They were really close."

According to the tabloid's source, Miller was becoming increasingly wary of Johansson at the time. She's said to have been on edge as Law rubbed shoulders with the younger woman at the BAFTA Awards that year. "Sienna didn't like Jude talking to Scarlett one bit," said the insider, who went on to claim that Miller was finding it harder and harder to get hold of Law on the phone. This one was never confirmed, though Page Six named Law as one of the men in Johansson's "rearview mirror" when it chronicled her romantic past in 2017.

Unsurprisingly, Sienna Miller ended her engagement to Jude Law following those embarrassingly detailed revelations from the nanny of his children. "They have definitely come to the end of the road," an insider told People. "They tried to make it work but it failed." That insider was speaking too soon, however, because just a few months later the actors were back on again. "It was one of those can't live with them, can't live without them [situations]," a friend of the couple said at the time. But what about the whole torrid affair thing? Was Miller really willing to accept it for what it was and move on? Well, yes.

When she sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone in 2006, Miller appeared to excuse Law's infidelity, which didn't go down well with some of the music mag's female readers. "I don't know, monogamy is a weird thing for me," Miller said (via People). "It's an overrated virtue, because, let's face it, we're f****** animals." There was a general feeling that Miller was letting her cheating man off the hook a little too easily. When the backlash began to mount, she spoke out and attempted to clarify her comments. "I said that although monogamy is something I hugely aspire to and respect, it is something that society has placed upon us and it's not always easy to be," she told Access Hollywood (via UPI). "I'm a very monogamous person."

There was a lot of mystery surrounding Jude Law's love life when 2008 rolled around. The rumor mill was working overtime, but there was no solid proof that Law was romantically involved with anybody. That was until somebody decided to take a few snaps of him in Essex nightclub 195 one May evening. 195 is known for attracting a host of reality stars and C-list celebs, which is why one onlooker was so shocked to see Law in there. "We were given wristbands for the VIP lounge," they told a local news outlet (via the Daily Mail). "We couldn't believe it when we saw Kimberly Stewart snogging the face off Jude Law. They were really going at it and barely came up for air."

As soon as they got a chance to intervene, the stunned revelers approached Stewart and Law, utterly starstruck by the latter. "He's the first big name we have ever seen in there, so myself and my friends walked over and asked if we could have our photo taken with them," the eyewitness said. "But they said no, turned back to face each other again then carried on kissing." Law's personal security reportedly apprehended the shunned fans and deleted the pictures they had taken, but luckily for us (though not so much for Law — Kimberly's crooner dad Rod Stewart is famously protective), the "snogging" images were saved to a memory disc.

There was a flurry of activity between Jude Law's first and second love child. The actor was once again trying to repair things with Sienna Miller when he discovered Samantha Burke was pregnant, which obviously didn't help his chances. He was reportedly seeing actor Ruth Wilson for a spell, and he was also said to have been rather taken with model Alicia Rountree. Law was a man about town again, but he apparently hadn't learned his lesson. Not long after he first crossed paths with singer Catherine Harding (a.k.a. Cat Cavelli) on a night out in London, Law had a fifth child on the way. "We met at a bar in Soho and hit it off," Harding told the Mirror. "I didn't plan to have a baby. It just happened."

Law's daughter Ada arrived in 2015, though it wasn't an easy birth for her mother. "It was a C-section, it was really horrible," said Harding, who revealed that Law wasn't present for the birth. "But he came straight after and was really amazing." She described Law as "funny and sweet" before adding, "I remember last week he came over and he had to change her on the park bench. He cleaned her all up." Harding went on to reveal that they dated for around seven months before they decided to move forward as friends. Little Ada got a new half-brother in 2020: her mom gave birth to another love child, this one by Chelsea soccer ace Jorginho.