Natalie Portman’s ex husband Benjamin Millepied has moved on with a new girlfriend and now the Oscar-winning actress is looking to do the same … with a little help from her famous friends, a source exclusively tells Life & Style.
“The central problem with Natalie as she gets back on the dating scene is that she has a bit of an irrational fear about dating a fellow actor,” says the longtime member of Natalie’s friend group. “She barely likes to socialize with other stars and she’s even admitted publicly how difficult it is maintaining those friendships.”
Israel-born Natalie, 43, who grew up in the Northeast, has been having a rough go of it post divorce, according to the source, at least in part because of her unwillingness to date within the industry.
The Black Swan star began seeing her ex, Benjamin, 47, a French choreographer and dancer who she met on the set of the film, in 2009. Like a Hollywood movie itself, their romance blossomed as he gave intensive ballet lessons to the actress to prepare her for the role. A year later, they were engaged and expecting their first child – Aleph, now 13 – and welcomed a second, Amalia, 7, a few years later.
Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until news of Benjamin’s infidelity broke in May 2023. They quietly split following the scandal, ultimately finalizing their divorce in February this year.
Moving on quickly, Ben was spotted in Paris on October 15 getting cozy with a mystery woman and putting on some PDA. According to a source that spoke to Us Weekly, the actress “isn’t surprised that Benjamin has moved on because of how their relationship ended. She thought he’d move on pretty quickly.”
While Ben is out living his best post-divorce life, the first source says Natalie is still struggling to find Mr. Right … or at least Mr. Rebound. The wait comes from the fact that, while Natalie, “does have famous friends,” the pal notes “she’s a lot more comfortable around people she knows from her college years and folks she grew up with back East, before she became a household name.”
“That’s why Natalie is going to be a lot more open to dating a heart surgeon or an architect than a sitcom star.”
Natalie preferring an enterprising man outside of the industry isn’t out of the ordinary, either. Jen Garner’s new post-Ben beau, John Miller, is a tech CEO and very much not an actor like her ex, which bodes well for the May December star.
The source continues: “She is attracted to high achievers and that was the big thing that she and Ben had in common, but it turned out he wanted to be a star a lot more than he initially let on, and Natalie is going to be very careful about not getting into a situation like that again.”
“She’s made this clear to her friends, but let’s see if Natalie sticks to her own ground rules about this stuff. She’s under pressure to find somebody worthy of her time now that Ben has publicly stepped out with his own new lover.”
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