Sean Penn has confirmed he and his partner of four years, Leila George, are now married, having wed in an intimate ceremony during the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the past couple of days, rumours have been swirling concerning the marital status of 59-year-old Penn, with reports stating that he and 28-year-old George had married in secret.
On Tuesday 4 August, the Milk actor confirmed the news during a virtual appearance on American talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
Seth Meyers started their conversation by asking Penn whether there was any truth in the reports that he and George had exchanged their vows.
Penn responded by lifting his left hand, showing his gold wedding band to the camera.
The Oscar winner added that he and his partner were wed just a few days ago on Thursday 30 July.
“We did a Covid wedding. By that I mean it was a county commissioner on Zoom and we were at the house, my two children and her brother, and we did it that way,” Penn said.
Meyers commented that he imagined having a smaller wedding would mean it was a “low stress” occasion, to which Penn replied: “Let’s say there are socially-liberating factors under Covid.”
George, who starred in films including Mortal Engines and The Kid, has been in a relationship with Penn since 2016.
Penn has been married twice before, to singer Madonna between 1985 and 1989 and to actor Robin Wright from 1996 to 2010.
He has two children from his marriage to Robin Wright, 29-year-old Dylan Frances Penn and 26-year-old Hopper Jack Penn.
Penn was also previously romantically attached to actor Charlize Theron, with the actors dating from 2013 to 2015.
Although there was speculation that the pair were once engaged, Theron recently stated that this claim was false.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show earlier this year, the Mad Max: Fury Road star said she “did not almost get married to Sean”, describing the rumour as “bulls***”.
“No, we dated, that was literally all we did, we dated,” she said, adding that while their relationship was “definitely exclusive”, it lasted for “barely a year”.