The Real Reason Scarlett Johansson Divorced Ryan Reynolds

Remember when Ryan Reynolds was married to Scarlett Johansson for a hot minute? We almost forgot, too. They began dating in 2007, tied the knot in 2008, and split in December 2010, and they were both so private and secretive about the whole thing that there's very little photographic evidence they were ever together at all. Their whirlwind romance might have seemed too quick for some, but it's also hard for the public to know their relationship's timeline because they kept it so tightly wrapped. Speculation abounds in all Hollywood relationships, however, including theirs, despite their attempts to keep things private.

All the same, their divorce announcement in December 2010 came as a surprise. "After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we've decided to end our marriage," they said in a statement, via People. "We entered our relationship with love and it's with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn't expected, it's certainly appreciated." So, what exactly happened between these two?

After their divorce, Scarlett Johansson hinted that she may not have known how to handle such a serious relationship. After all, they tied the knot when she was just 23 and Ryan Reynolds was 31 years old. As she explained to Glamour in 2014, "I feel I know now more of what I need in a relationship, what I want in a relationship. And I know I have more tools to communicate, not just with my partner, but with myself. That's not necessarily any reflection of who I was married to or what was happening in my marriage, but really where I was in my life." 

Considering Reynolds had jumped from a lengthy engagement with "You Oughta Know" singer Alanis Morissette into a romance with the "Avengers" star, he may have been too eager to pick up where his previous relationship left off, resulting in the new couple marrying before either person was truly ready.

Sources told InTouch Weekly that Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds started as a case of opposites attract — and that in the end, they realized they were actually incompatible. "He's more traditional and she's more independent," an insider revealed (via the Daily Mail). "They're both strong-willed and stubborn people. There was a lack of warmth between them, that was troubling. ... He said it sounded like she was yelling at him every time she talked to him. When Scarlett visited Ryan on the set of 'The Proposal,' she was screaming at him in his trailer — going nuts."

They also seem to have had different ideas of how to handle their fame. There were hardly any photographs of Johansson and Reynolds together when they were dating and married, which seems to be at the behest of Johansson. She very rarely parades around with her paramours, marrying her subsequent husbands, French journalist Romain Dauriac and current beau Colin Jost, in secret ceremonies.

In contrast, Reynolds speaks often of his wife, Blake Lively, and he basked in the limelight with his ex, Alanis Morissette, as well.

In April 2016, Scarlett Johansson hinted to Cosmopolitan that career competition with Ryan Reynolds may have played a role in their split. "The logistics of being with another actor are challenging," she said (via E! News). "There has to be a real understanding of how you share your time, especially when two people's careers are going at the same rate. Or even if one person is more successful than the other, that also proves challenging."

That echoes her sentiments a year earlier, when she hinted to Parade that Reynolds' box office bombs may have played a role in their divorce. "Acting is a very strange world to be co-existing in," she said. "It's very volatile. There's always going to be the more successful person. It's related to rejection. Because actors, if they're not having success, connect it directly to unpopularity — to the fact that nobody wants them." She added, "[Marriage] takes a lot of work. It takes a man who's not only confident in the love that you have for one another, but confident in what he has going on in his own career."

Because of her success, Reynolds may have been controlling as well. A source told InTouch Weekly (via the Daily Mail): "He can be an overbearing control freak. ... When he wanted her there, he expected her to drop everything and come to him." Not so easy to do when one has a thriving film career, like Johansson had.

The timeline surrounding Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson's marriage is a bit muddled. While no one has ever confirmed cheating rumors — and the secrecy of their relationship could skew the timeline — there are some questionable elapses of time between the "Deadpool" star's previous engagement with Alanis Morissette and when he began dating Johansson. Almost immediately after Reynold's and Morissette's split was announced, rumblings of a romance with Johansson emerged. 

And if there was some overlap there, that could have potentially been a bad omen for Johansson in her own marriage to Reynolds. The same sort of rumors flew when he began sharing red carpets with his "Green Lantern" co-star Blake Lively in 2010, while he was still married to Johansson. Though the parties involved have never confirmed a love triangle, sources told the Daily Mail (via The Things) that Reynolds and Lively's butterflies began while filming "Green Lantern." A server reportedly caught the co-stars getting close over dinner before he and Johansson split. "It was just the two of them, and they were laughing and flirting," the spy said. "It looked like a date. If you didn't know who they were, you would definitely assume they were a couple." Regardless of how their relationship began and ended, however, it seems Johansson and Reynolds have moved on and found happiness. 

As it happens, sometimes marriages just don't have the right timing. When Scarlett Johansson opened up about her life to Vanity Fair, without naming Ryan Reynolds, she explained that she was young and didn't quite understand what marriage entailed. "I didn't really have an understanding of marriage," she told the outlet. "Maybe I kind of romanticized it, I think, in a way. It's a different part of my life now. I feel like I'm in a place in my life, I feel I'm able to make more active choices. I'm more present, I think, than I've been before." Her conversation with Vanity Fair came nearly a decade after divorcing Reynolds, so there was certainly time for growth and evolution there.

Even though she may have romanticized marriage, Reynolds and Johansson made a go of being friends, even at first. Shortly after announcing their split, the two met up for dinner at a New York restaurant. An insider told People that they just wanted to sit down and have a meal together to keep things light.

In 2009, Scarlett Johansson told Time Out New York (via Today) that she and Reynolds just didn't have time to date. We can certainly understand how these two Hollywood dynamos were just too busy for dinner and a movie. But this made it hard for them to see one another at all. "We have no time for dates," Johansson told the outlet. "We work and then go home and — I, anyway — just stare at the wall for a few hours before I go to sleep. ... Like in any profession, it's difficult. You want to make sure you have time to invest in your family. It's a challenge, but it's worth it."

It makes sense that they weren't able to see one another, as both of them were extremely busy in those years. In 2009, Reynolds had four projects come out, including "The Proposal" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Meanwhile, Johansson was seen in "He's Just Not That Into You," with "Iron Man 2" coming out the following year. Needless to say, these two were busy, particularly during the time they were married to each other.

It isn't surprising that Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson kept even their divorce under wraps, given how quiet they were about their relationship. All the same, Reynolds made it clear that there was no scandal involved in their divorce. "I'll say this: the media was not invited to my marriage, and they're definitely not invited into the divorce," he told Details magazine in 2011, via Today. "There was no story and no scandal, so the narrative was just created for me. That was the most disturbing part. I wasn't angry. I absolutely predicted every beat of it. There's an entire economy around this sort of thing — therefore it's gotta happen one way or another."

Meanwhile, Johansson told Cosmopolitan in 2016 that it's just difficult for two actors to be together with such packed schedules. As usual, she doesn't name Reynolds, though we're certain that's who she is alluding to. Now over a decade post-divorce, Reynolds and Johansson are living their best lives and we wish them luck as they continue to do so.