Robert Downey Jr.’s Wife, Susan, ‘Didn’t Think About Kids’ Before Meeting the ‘Iron Man’ Actor
Robert Downey Jr. is happily married to producer Susan Downey. Not only are the two going on 15 years of marriage, but they’re also business partners. Co-founders of the production company, Team Downey, Susan and RDJ spend time with their family when they’re not working. But as Susan once explained, she didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about having kids. Only after she started dating the Iron Man actor did she really envision becoming a parent.
Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey met while filming ‘Gothika’
The love story between RDJ and Susan starts with the 2004 thriller Gothika. At the time Susan had been a producer in Hollywood and Gothika starring Halle Berry and RDJ marked her first solo producing credit. But it wasn’t love at first sight.
Initially not attracted to RDJ — Susan once recalled finding her future husband “strange” when they first met — she got to know RDJ over the course of filming. Eventually, they went on a date. Soon they were engaged and in 2005, they tied the knot with a star-studded wedding ceremony in the Hamptons.
They have 2 kids together
Today, RDJ and Susan are parents to two children. They first became parents in 2012 when they welcomed a son, Exton. Then came a daughter, Avri, in 2014. RDJ also has a son, Indio, from his previous marriage to singer-model Deborah Falconer.
As a stepmother, Susan once described herself as having a “really great relationship” with Indio. Her secret to step-parenting? To “not act like we were a big family right away,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2009.
Susan Downey ‘didn’t think about kids’ but knew she wanted them
Being with RDJ changed Susan. Before she met the actor she’d been “very focused, driven, rigid, work-oriented” she told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2014 joint interview with RDJ.
“I didn’t care about having a family or making a home. I didn’t think about kids,” she said.
But it wasn’t that Susan had never thought of herself as a parent because she had. It’s that she saw it being a real possibility with RDJ.
“It’s not that I didn’t want those things, I just didn’t think about them. And then I had someone who came in as a tornado, this creative, beautiful ball of insane energy and passion,” she said. “And it completely opened me up.”
Their relationship created a ‘sense of hope and excitement and possibility’
During her interview with Harper’s Bazaar three years before she and RDJ would welcome Exton, Susan opened up about someday having kids. She shared that she and the Dolittle actor wanted children but that they weren’t set on when.
When the publication asked Susan whether or not she and RDJ planned on having kids, she responded, “I think so, but we don’t have specific plans.”
At the time of the interview, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been in the early stages with RDJ’s Iron Man character. Iron Man had already hit theaters in 2008 but the franchise hadn’t picked up speed yet. As for Susan and RDJ, they were excited about where their lives would go.
“For whatever reason, when we came together, there was a sense of hope and excitement and possibility,” Susan said.
With RDJ’s chapter on the MCU closed (at least for now), we’ll have to wait and see what’s next for the couple.
