Glenn Close Reveals Why All Of Her Relationships Have Failed
Glenn Close spoke about how her childhood experiences have impacted her romantic relationships in a tearful interview on Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey's new series about mental health.
Close has been married three times, according to Parade. The"Fatal Attraction" star was only 22 when she divorced her first husband, who she met through her family. "I think that was basically an arranged marriage, actually," she later confessed. After that, Close was married to business James Marlas for four years, had a child with producer John Starke, and eventually met her third husband, venture capitalist David Shaw.
Per Page Six, she and Shaw quietly divorced after nine years in 2015. The actor, who has now been nominated for eight Oscars, told Parade that it wasn't "a good mix" to be romantically involved with someone outside of show business. "To stay an artist, you have to be with people who understand that and don't expect you to have their outlook on the world," she added. "It really is like two different languages."
But, as she shared on "The Me You Can't See," the root of her relationship issues might be her unusual childhood. In a candid interview about her life, Close opened up about the "trauma" that she experienced being raised in the conservative religious group Moral Re-Armament, which she called a "cult."
Glenn Close opened up about growing up in a "cult"
Glenn Close's father, Dr William Taliaferro, joined the MRA in 1954. Close, who was seven at the time, was also dragged into the community when her father moved the whole family to Switzerland, where the group's headquarters were established. As the actor told The Hollywood Reporter, she completely cut herself off from the group when she was 22.
"I was in this group called MRA and it was basically a cult, everyone spouted the same things and there's a lot of rules, a lot of control," Close described on "The Me You Can't See," per The Independent, sharing how it affected her "psychologically" for a long time. "Because of how we were raised, anything you thought you'd do for yourself was considered selfish," she explained. "We never went on any vacations or had any collective memories of stuff other than what we went through, which was really awful."
"It's astounding that something you go through at such a young stage in your life still has such a potential to be destructive," the actor added, reflecting on the impact that MRA had on her life. "I think that's childhood trauma, because of the devastation, emotional and psychological, of the cult."
And when it comes to relationships, Close blames her lack of success on the psychological impact of being raised in a cult. "I have not been successful in my relationships and finding a permanent partner," she admitted. "And I'm sorry about that."