When you furrow your brow and think back to early ‘aughts celebrity relationships, you might find yourself pondering “Did Kirsten Dunst and Jake Gyllenhaal really date or does it just seem like they should have?”
But don’t worry, you’re not imagining things — Dunst and Gyllenhaal were very much an item for almost two years back then. When they met, she was 20, he was 22 and they were both gorgeous, talented and with careers very much on the up in Hollywood. Yep, they seemed like a perfect match, so, why is their relationship now firmly in the archives?
How it Began
Who doesn’t love a meddling A-list sister? Gyllenhaal’s actress sister Maggie, keeper of scarves, made friends with Dunst when they shot Mona Lisa Smile together in 2002. Clearly deciding Dunst was a better match for her little bro than other costars like Julia Roberts and Julia Stiles, she introduced them. Soon, they were dating.
How Long it Lasted
These two moved fast, moving in together and adopting a German Shepherd they named Atticus to show off their literary credentials. Their coupling happened during the peak paparazzi era, which meant they were often sighted PDA-ing around the world. Most memorably, they once enjoyed some al fresco dining and day-drinking in London and Gyllenhaal was snapped staring at his love incredulously as she shoveled salad into her mouth without cutlery.
But after just shy of two years together, they split.
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How it Ended
In July 2004, Gyllenhaal’s rep Stephen Huvane confirmed to People that the cute couple were no more. “Kirsten and Jake remain the best of friends,” he said. “Details regarding when and why their romantic relationship stopped are not being provided, but suffice it to say it happened some time ago. They are still very close.”
Rumors swirled that the couple just didn’t have much in common: Dunst was into nights out, Gyllenhaal was more of a homebody, but neither party ever divulged the truth about their demise.
What They Said About Each Other
During their relationship, Dunst was open and realistic about where things were going — or not, as it turned out. “Oh, I’m too young to get married,” she told People in 2004, not long before the breakup. “Seriously, I’m 22 years old. It’s so annoying that they put pressure on you.”
At around the same time, Gyllenhaal also spoke to reporters about the romance. “Kirsten and I know what’s real and what’s not,” he said. “We know what happens when you are both actors.”
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In 2005, a few months after the split, Gyllenhaal talked to the Telegraph about relationships and offered some insight into where things had gone wrong. “I’m 24 years old and my relationships are going to be incredibly dramatic just by the nature of what they are,” he said. “I’m at an age where I don’t totally know who I am, so how can I know who I am in a relationship? Society gives us these ideas of what love is supposed to be and how we’re supposed to act and the movies say very simply, guy gets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl again, and I have subscribed to that idea and I think a lot of young people of my generation have done the same and have been led to a lot of unhappiness.”
What They Say Now
The high-profile pair have mostly stayed pretty private about what went down, but when Gyllenhaal told Howard Stern’s Sirius XM in 2005 that he had been “really in love” only twice, the assumption was that one of them was Dunst — and he added that it’s his fault that his relationships have failed.
“It was me, man,” he said. “I think I probably just got scared.” He added: “I love love, man. Are you kidding me?”
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In 2009, Dunst also told Allure that, contrary to the intentions laid out in that official split statement, they were no longer in each other’s lives. “It would be nice to see him,” she said. “But we’re not good friends.”
Key Relationship Takeaways
Most people aren’t still with the hottie they dated when they were 20 — especially Hollywood A-listers — so it seems like this one just ran its course. In fact, the dog they shared, Atticus, outlasted the relationship by a long way; he died in 2015 after more than a decade at Gyllenhaal’s side.
Now, more than 20 years on from the split, Dunst is married to her Fargo costar Jesse Plemons, and the couple share two boys, born in 2018 and 2021.
Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, remains unmarried, but with plenty of similarly high-profile romances in his back catalogue including, of course, Taylor Swift. Since 2018, he’s been dating model Jeanne Cadieu. The couple keep a pretty low-profile but in 2022 he told Yahoo, “I love her so much. She’s such a good person.”
