Are Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp about to tie the knot? A timeline of their relationship
Are wedding bells ringing for Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp? There’s buzz that the under-the-radar couple is planning to wed in South Carolina this summer.
While completely unconfirmed, it wouldn’t be all that surprising, given the pair’s penchant for privacy. Unfortunately, the best wedding rumor — that Tom Hanks will walk his Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail co-star down the aisle — was just debunked. (Tears!) But that hasn’t slowed speculation that the couple is secretly engaged.
Ryan, 56, and the 66-year-old rocker have been on-again, off-again since late 2010. They got together shortly after Mellencamp’s split from his ex-wife, Elaine Irwin, to whom he was married for 18 years.
Neither Ryan nor Mellencamp spoke much about their romance the first time around, and they ended the relationship as quietly as it began. The couple split in the summer of 2014 due to the long distance between their homes. The actress lives in New York City, while Mellencamp has homes in Indiana and South Carolina, and he said moving wouldn’t be an option.
“I’m too sensitive to live [in New York],” he told Rolling Stone in 2013. “I can’t see poor people. I can’t see the suffering. I can’t see the trash on the streets.” There was also the whole issue of being followed by paparazzi. “I don’t give a f*** about me, but I don’t like it for [Ryan],” he exclaimed. “I’m not leaving Indiana. I’m going to die here.”
“Meg is an angel. She was just an angel sent to me at the right time,” Mellencamp gushed on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show in September 2014. “We tried to have a relationship for three years long distance.”
Still, the singer hinted at the time that the two could reconcile, saying, “We’ll see what happens.”
Mellencamp moved on with Christie Brinkley, dating the model for about a year before splitting in 2016. As for Ryan, she kept a relatively low profile in the romance department.
“I’m on a little break [from love],” she told Closer in 2015. “I’m [in love] with my life right now in a way that I adore, with my kids and my world.”
She continued, “I love my age. I love my life right now. I love what I know about. I love the person I’ve become, the one I’ve evolved into. In my life I’ve been scrappy as hell, but I feel easy with things now. I think that comes with age.”
While it initially seemed like Ryan and Mellencamp’s split was amicable, the singer hinted at some bad blood. Upon his return to the The Howard Stern Show in 2017, he exclaimed that “women hate me.”
“You know, I love Meg Ryan,” he said. “She hates me to death.” When asked why, Mellencamp responded: “I think it’s because I’m a child. I throw fits, I gripe, I complain. I’m moody. Every bad thing that a fella can be, that’s me.”
Stern suggested that his friend call up Ryan and apologize. “I’ve done that,” Mellencamp said. “She just doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I can’t blame her.”
Perhaps his public mea culpa was just what was needed to clear the air. Months later, Mellencamp and Ryan were photographed together again. “They have a bond,” a source told People of the pair. Just like that, they were officially back together. It seems as if their families approve, too. The actress has been seen sporting a ring on that finger at times since their reconciliation.
Ryan has two kids — Jack, 26, from her 10-year marriage to Dennis Quaid, and adopted daughter Daisy, 14. John has five children — Michelle, 47; Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Teddi, 36; Justice, 33; Speck, 23; and Hud, 24 — from his three marriages.
If Mellencamp and Ryan are engaged, it will be his fourth trip down the aisle. He was married to Priscilla Mellencamp (1970-1981), Victoria Granucci (1981-1989), and Elaine Irwin (1992-2011).
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