The Truth About Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Marriage

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has taken on some seriously high profile roles throughout his career, including playing Pietro Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and taking the lead in "Kick-Ass" and "Kick-Ass 2." However, aside from the actor's memorable onscreen roles, Aaron has regularly hit the headlines for his marriage to movie director Sam Taylor-Johnson. As well as directing "Fifty Shades of Grey," Sam has directed Aaron on more than one occasion. While the pair seems inseparable, they've also been subjected to a plethora of tabloid speculation, especially as Sam is 23 years older than Aaron.

Speaking about the paparazzi attention his relationship with Sam received early on, Aaron told The Guardian in 2012, "It shaped and changed our world quite quickly, because we were both strong and stayed by each other's side." He continued, "We didn't listen to publicists who said things like: 'If you go out to events, make sure you take separate cars. Don't be seen together.' ... I won't mention any names, but further up the line you see bigger actors playing those sorts of games. We never wanted to. We did what we felt was right."

Join us as we explore the truth about Aaron Taylor-Johnson's marriage to Sam Taylor-Johnson.

When Aaron Taylor-Johnson (then Aaron Johnson) met Sam Taylor-Johnson (then Sam Taylor-Wood), he was auditioning for her movie, the John Lennon biopic "Nowhere Boy." At the time, Sam was getting a divorce from art dealer Jay Jopling, with whom she shares two children. Although reports vary regarding their ages at the time of their first meeting, "Nowhere Boy" was shot in March 2009, meaning that the "Kick-Ass" actor would have been 18, having been born in June 1990. Sam and Aaron started dating soon after shooting ended, at which point the director was 42. The couple's 23-year age gap has been the subject of much discussion ever since.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Sam said of meeting Aaron, "I wasn't expecting anything that day. Just to see a bunch of actors pretending to be John Lennon." Meanwhile, Aaron revealed, "I remember it very, very clearly. I know exactly what she was wearing. This white shirt that she still has, that I love. It definitely changed my life, though not in the way I expected." Sam confirmed to Harper's Bazaar that she didn't begin dating Aaron until production had wrapped, as she explained, "We were very professional through the entire film." And as Aaron confirmed, "No funny business at all."

Despite there being a major age gap between them, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was certain that Sam Taylor-Johnson was the one for him pretty much the instant they met at his audition for "Nowhere Boy." Even though he was just 18 at the time, Aaron's connection with the artist and film director was apparently impossible to deny. And it would seem as though Sam felt just as strongly about her future husband. The "Fifty Shades of Grey" director told Harper's Bazaar, "But everyone on set knew. And as soon as we finished, he told me he was going to marry me. We had never been on a date, or even kissed." Basically, even though their romance was apparently on hold until work had ended on "Nowhere Boy," Sam and Aaron had developed an unbreakable connection.

In fact, Aaron was so certain of his feelings for Sam, that it wasn't long before he took the relationship to the next level. The "Nocturnal Animals" star told Harper's Bazaar, "And a year to the minute after we met, exactly one year to the minute, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me." According to People, Sam and Aaron announced their engagement in October 2009. They tied the knot on June 21, 2012.

Since the start of Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson's relationship following their collaboration on "Nowhere Boy," the actor and his wife have been proverbially joined at the hip. During their joint interview with Harper's Bazaar, Sam explained, "In the 10 years we've been together, we've only been apart for maybe two or three days." Aaron concurred and said, "And those were the worst days of those 10 years." Basically, Sam and Aaron are perfectly content in one another's company, and they also make a great team professionally, having collaborated for a second time on the movie "A Million Little Pieces."

According to the Daily Mail, Sam discussed her fast engagement to Aaron at a special screening of "Nowhere Boy" in November 2009. The director said of her family and friends, "They have reacted really positively. They know how intensely we feel." Johnson also chimed in, saying, "My friends and family have been really lovely and supportive." And as Sam told The Sunday Times in 2017, "We're in such sync. We spend every minute of the day together." Clearly, the intensity of the couple's connection is why they've rarely spent any time apart since the first time they met.

When Sam Taylor-Johnson first met Aaron Taylor-Johnson, she'd just split from her husband, art dealer Jay Jopling, with whom she shares two daughters, Angelica Mara, born in 1997, and Jessie Phoenix, born in 2005. Sam and Aaron also have two daughters together, Wylda Rae, born in July 2010, and Romy Hero, born in January 2012. And by all accounts, Aaron loves being a father, and a stepdad to Sam's eldest children. In January 2015, Sam told The Guardian, "The great thing about Aaron is that he's happy not working and being at home with the kids while I work ... We're actually fighting over it. He's like, 'No no, I like being an at-home dad, doing the cooking and the school runs.'"

Aaron basically mirrored Sam's remarks a few years later, during an interview with Mr Porter. "I get more fulfillment from being a father than I do from being an actor," he explained. "I'm still constantly wanting to give it up." And in 2014, he told Evening Standard, "I was raised by women. Now I'm raising women. I was always better around girls. I live in an all-female household. I even have two female dogs." But Aaron doesn't take all of the credit for raising the kids, as he explained, "My girls have the best woman to look up to. She's the strongest woman I know. ... She's so inspiring and smart. My girls are all going to be strong women, too."

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sam Taylor-Johnson's 23-year age gap has garnered a lot of media attention since they started dating in 2009, not least because Sam, then 42, was in a position of power as then-18-year-old Aaron's director on the set of "Nowhere Boy." However, both Sam and Aaron have always maintained that they're both extremely happy in their relationship. In 2017, Sam told The Hollywood Reporter, "If I gave a second thought to other people, I would be the unhappiest person, probably still in a miserable marriage," she said referring to her relationship with her first husband, Jay Jopling. As for her romance with Aaron, Sam told the publication, "People like to talk about it. I'm like, 'Yeah, but it works better than my last marriage.' It's lasted longer than a lot of my friends' marriages."

During a 2010 profile of Sam in Elle, Aaron revealed, "I don't look at Sam as if she's a lot older than me. I feel like we're on the same path." Later in the article, he continued "With Sam, I just feel like we're like two souls that have been joined together that are like ... The only thing I've ever been sure of in my life is when I wanted to be with Sam, do you know what I mean?"

Perhaps one of the reasons that Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson first connected in spite of their 23-year age gap is because the "Godzilla" star is apparently somewhat of an "old soul." Speaking to The Sunday Times in 2017, the "Fifty Shades of Grey" director revealed, "My friends call him Benjamin Button because he has — on the outside — such youth, and on the inside, he is so wise and settled. He doesn't like parties. He likes being at home and cooking for the family. He likes walking the dogs. He loves his chickens — he collects the eggs and makes breakfast for everyone." Sam also said of her husband, "He is an amazing man." Awwww.

While speaking to The Telegraph in 2019, Aaron confirmed his status as an "old soul," and explained, "I worked in an adult environment from an early age; I had open, direct conversations with directors, producers, actors, where my opinions would be valued and matter ... I grew up pretty quickly — I left school at 15. I had a totally different upbringing from my kids." Because he had such a burgeoning career at a very young age, Aaron felt that he was more mature than most of his peers. As he explained to The Telegraph, "When I met Sam I'd already lived a life far beyond that of most of my contemporaries — I didn't relate to anyone my age. I just feel that we're on the same wavelength."

Despite being in the public eye, and having lived out much of their love story in front of the world, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson remain private about what really goes on in their relationship. During their joint interview with Harper's Bazaar in 2019, Aaron explained, "We live behind walls.  Literally, figuratively, and deliberately. You'll never see our children or any of our most personal moments on social media or in the press. We have our professional lives and our life together, and we keep them apart." And when asked where they thought they'd be "in 20 years," Aaron replied, "A remote island somewhere," and Sam agreed saying, "Maybe the Hebrides?"

Aaron has also spoken about his relationship being thrust into the spotlight on account of the couple's age gap, suggesting that he favors privacy as a result. As he told Vulture in 2017, "The attention was intrusive ... But having to deal with that early in my career probably got me to a place where I can more quickly just go, 'Oh, f*** it' instead of wanting to rip someone's head off for asking questions I don't like."

When the couple tied the knot, instead of traditionally taking the man's name, Aaron Johnson and Sam Taylor-Wood decided to merge their surnames, and created a new one, Taylor-Johnson, instead. This was especially important to Aaron, who told Evening Standard in 2012, "I just don't see why women need to take the man's name. I wanted to be a part of her just as much as she wanted to be part of me."

During another interview with Evening Standard, this time in 2014, Aaron elaborated, "I'm not the kind of male who has to put my imprint on everything. That d**khead kind of thing." He continued, "We wanted to give our family unity. I wanted to embrace her name. I'd rather wear her name on everything than mine."

In fact, Aaron was so committed to using his new surname that he fought to have it included in the credits of "Anna Karenina." As he revealed to The Guardian, "It was so important to me. ... I said: 'I want it changed!'" Aaron's adamance was due to a previously lost battle for the name swap on his billing for "Savages," which he was told couldn't be done because "the posters had already gone out." 

Whereas Aaron Taylor-Johnson has said multiple times that he could walk away from Hollywood and be content being a husband and a father, Sam Taylor-Johnson feels that her career has only gotten stronger thanks to the support of her actor hubby. "It was so amazing to fall crazily in love and get married and have kids," she told The Guardian. "I didn't really think about it. I was so not interested in my career. Being in an amazing relationship, having come out of a difficult one, it felt so good. And I feel like that stability has enabled me to get on with doing this momentous project."

In a joint interview with The Telegraph, the couple continued to sing each other's praises. "I'm so lucky to have such a supportive husband," Sam told the publication. "When he works, I don't, and vice versa." Aaron also confirmed that he's more than happy to hop into the professional passenger seat. "I really enjoy it. There's nothing more empowering than supporting my wife in her passions and ambitions; I've never felt more — what's the opposite of emasculated? Empowered."

As well as supporting one another's creative careers, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson also have a passion for working together. Following their second film collaboration, an adaptation of James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," the couple opened up to Frey, who profiled them for Harper's Bazaar, about the possibility of working together again. "You want to do it again, right?" Aaron asked his wife, to which she replied, "It was the best thing we've ever done." Obviously, Aaron couldn't help but agree and explained, "Even better because we did it together," to which Sam responded, "The best." Basically, the Taylor-Johnsons are as sure of their working relationship as they are of their romantic one. 

And when Frey asked about the couple's longterm plans for the future, Aaron said, "Realistically, hopefully still doing this, but only like we did on this one, with each other." Aaron repeated much of the same sentiment to The Telegraph when he said, "We just have that trust when we collaborate — we are not afraid to play." If it's up to them, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be working together for many years to come.

Proving that they have one of Hollywood's most solid marriages, Aaron Taylor-Johnson made sure to mention wife Sam Taylor-Johnson when he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance in Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals" in 2017. "I want to thank my wife for being there with me and supporting me through this," Aaron said, via The Hollywood Reporter. "Thank you for putting up with me, Jesus, I was not very pleasant in this role. ... You're my soulmate and I love you very much." Aaron also made sure to thank the rest of his family and said, "I'm blessed. I have four beautiful daughters: Anjelica, Phoenix, Wylda, and Romy, I love you all very much."

In 2018, Aaron reiterated his commitment to his family in an interview with the Independent. "I love my wife, and I love my kids, and that is my life," he told the publication. "The reason I wake up in the morning is to be with my family. When I was younger acting was my first love and passion, and since I met Sam, she and my kids, they're my priority and my life, so my work works around them."

Considering the fact that Aaron Taylor-Johnson was just a teenager when he met the forty-something director who would later become his wife, many onlookers probably expected the couple to split long ago. However, two children and more than a decade later, Sam Taylor-Johnson and her "Kick-Ass" husband's marriage is still going strong. During an interview with the Daily Beast in 2019 to promote their movie "A Million Little Pieces," Sam revealed, "We've been together for over a decade now, so I feel like it is less of a conversation for people." She continued, "It doesn't worry me, and it's not something that is difficult to talk about because it's such a positive story, that we're a decade later together and working together and raising a strong family together. That may be a positive message for people out there."

As for why their relationship has remained strong, despite their celebrity status and constant chatter about their age gap romance, Aaron told Mr Porter in 2017, "I don't really analyze our relationship. I just know that it works. I just feel secure and loved and safe. We have this very deep connection. We're just in sync."

Despite consistently seeming to be one of Hollywood's most secure couples, divorce rumors began to swirl in April 2021 when Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson decided to sell their home in Los Angeles. Dirt reported the listing of the couple's $7.5 million home in the Hollywood Hills, which has been lavishly decorated by designers Pierce & Ward. Per Dirt, the Taylor-Johnsons moved into the house, which is hidden away near Runyon Canyon, in 2013, soon after they tied the knot.

As Sam and Aaron have owned the house for so long, many speculated that the couple may have quietly split, and listed their home for sale as a result. However, despite rampant speculation on social media, there has been zero confirmation that Aaron and Sam are no longer together, and it would appear that they're simply selling up and moving house. As reported by Capital FM, a slew of memes and reactions flooded Twitter once news broke of the house sale, but as there have been no further reports about the state of the couple's marriage, as of this writing, it seems that the speculation was most likely unfounded.

Having already collaborated on 2009's "Nowhere Boy," and 2018's "A Million Little Pieces," Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sam Taylor-Johnson have decided to work together again. As of this writing, Sam is prepping her new movie, "Rothko," which she will direct. Set to star in the film are Sam's husband, Aaron, as well as Russell Crowe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jared Harris, and Aisling Franciosi. Per IMDb, the movie will focus on the daughter of acclaimed artist Mark Rothko, who "is drawn into a protracted legal battle with her father's estate executors and gallery directors, in a fight to honor his legacy." Crowe is set to play Rothko in the movie, which is being adapted from the book "The Legacy Of Mark Rothko" by Lee Selde by screenwriter Lara Wood.

Considering the news of their next collaboration, it seems highly unlikely that there's any truth to the split rumors that emerged when the Taylor-Johnsons listed their Hollywood Hills home for sale. Hopefully the couple will continue to make movies together for many years to come.