Moving on after a bitter marital breakdown is never easy. But when your former husband was movie boss Harvey Weinstein, one of the most reviled and notorious men of recent times, the notion of starting life again – never mind finding new love – must seem a task of Sisyphean proportions.
And yet this week, Weinstein’s ex-wife, Georgina Chapman, the privately educated British fashion boss, showed she has managed just that – and then some.
For the beautiful Ms Chapman was back on the red carpet at the Golden Globes, making an assured re-entry into elite circles, on the arm of her new beloved: acclaimed actor Adrien Brody.
Not only was she at Brody’s side when he celebrated his Golden Globe win for his role in The Brutalist, but he paid an effusive tribute to her from the stage, saying: ‘To my beautiful and amazing partner Georgina, your generosity of spirit, your own resilience, your immense creativity, are a daily reminder of how to live.’
That resilience which Brody spoke of was a clear reference to her bumpy recent past – for Chapman has needed every ounce of that to bounce back from her marriage to Weinstein, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
In April last year his convictions in New York were overturned and he is currently awaiting retrial.
Accused of rape and sexual assault by some 80 women; his downfall was a seismic cultural event, sparking the powerful MeToo movement.
The humiliation of discovering your husband was such a prolific sexual abuser cannot be overestimated. But that trauma looked far behind Chapman, 48, on Sunday night with her and Brody, 51, apparently ‘all over each other’.
Nobody will say the pair are engaged, or comment on rumours they are married already, but they are living together in upstate New York – along with her mother, her two children from Weinstein and a menagerie of pets. Those close to them say the couple have never looked more in love.
Their bond, they say, is a profound one. Chapman even calls Brody her ‘twin’ because by chance they share a birthday – something they discovered on first meeting at a party thrown by friend and model Helena Christensen in 2019. Chapman, of course, knows only too well the pressures wreaked on actors by Hollywood. Her ex-husband was king of the Oscars, with his Miramax films receiving more than 300 nominations.
Now, his ex-wife’s new boyfriend is in line for one himself – which would be his second – with Chapman firmly at his side.
The Weinstein scandal was a personal disaster for Chapman, which she has done well to survive. Her husband’s disgrace in 2017 was followed in short order by their separation, a settlement reported to be $15 million and a divorce, finalised in 2021.
Chapman – who Weinstein met when she was an actress, and into whose fashion business he poured money and considerable industry clout – said in her sole interview on the subject, with Vogue magazine, that she had zero idea of her husband’s proclivities.
After he was exposed, she retreated from public life, their homes were sold, and for a time she lived in London, such was the toxicity of any association with Weinstein.
Despite her difficulties, Chapman said she felt unable to ask for any sympathy, given how his many victims had suffered.
In the Vogue interview she said: ‘There was a part of me that was terribly naive. I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief! And I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be?
‘What are people going to say to them? It’s like, they love their dad. They love him. I just can’t bear it for them.’
Those children are now 13 and 11. Their three older half siblings – all girls – by Weinstein’s first marriage, are thought to choose not to see him, but the two youngsters do.
I’m told they have visited their father in Wende prison and Bellevue prison hospital, both in New York, where he has been held. They also have Zoom calls with him. Weinstein’s hospitalisation is due to his poor health: he uses a wheelchair, is going blind, has diabetes, arthritis, spinal stenosis, anaemia, sleep apnoea, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.
A source close to Weinstein said: ‘He sees his two children by Georgina, they talk to him on the phone too. He’s maintained a good relationship with them. Being close to them means the world to him. There’s no acrimony with Georgina. He’s happy for her and hopes that continues to be the case.
‘They have a cordial relationship. They talk about things that are necessary for the children and that’s about it’.
Chapman told Vogue she believed right until his fall from grace that they were happy. ‘That’s what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life.’
Born in Richmond, Surrey, Chapman’s father, Brian, founded the coffee company Percol and her mother, Catherine, was a journalist. Privately educated, she attended Saint David’s boarding school in Ashford, Surrey.
A spell of modelling, waitressing and acting followed, but certainly her career was in a fledgling state when she got swept up by Weinstein. With characteristic forcefulness, he supported her when she launched her Marchesa fashion label in 2004.
That business is still going strong without his support and today its annual revenue is estimated at $38.5 million, with Georgina’s brother, Edward, chief executive.
When her marriage ended Chapman said she felt ‘humiliated and broken.’ That said, even before Weinstein had been convicted, Chapman had moved on.
She and Adrien Brody – an arty New Yorker who was single after splitting with model Lara Lieto – were invited to the launch of Helena Christensen’s swimwear line in Puerto Rico in April 2019.
The relationship took off quietly, only publicly emerging in early 2020. A source said: ‘She thinks he’s unusual. She finds [him] to be an interesting person with a deep passion for his work that is similar to hers.’
The following year saw their first red carpet appearance together. The months passed, love seemingly deepened and in 2022 they both went to the Vanity Fair Oscars party in March and the Met Gala in May.
By the time the pair were seen at the Venice film festival in September 2022, he had moved into Chapman’s farmhouse in upstate New York, where she had settled with her children after her split from Weinstein. Happily, Brody seems to find her children delightful.
There is a sense that, as time passes, their confidence about being seen as a couple is growing. One perhaps shouldn’t forget that being seen with someone so closely associated with Weinstein could have been toxic for Brody’s public image.
But last year they went to the Met Gala again together and, as Brody promotes The Brutalist – his life with Chapman is coming into the spotlight a little more.
In an interview with Vogue this week Brody talked about having an art studio to paint in at their farmhouse. And Chapman told the magazine: ‘If he’s in the midst of inhabiting a role, he’s up in the office, reading, covered in cats.’
She adds that acting ‘exhausts him, because he gives so much. He’s very sensitive, he has a thin veil emotionally with the world.’
A greater contrast with her ex-husband is hard to imagine.