Charlize Theron shares truth behind Sean Penn 'ghosting,' adoption rumors

Charlize Theron shares truth behind Sean Penn ‘ghosting,’ adoption rumors

Charlize Theron, right, debunks some myths behind her romance with actor Sean Penn.

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer

March 29, 2016 4:29 PM PT

Charlize Theron is putting several of the rumors that swirled around her 18-month relationship with actor Sean Penn to rest.

In an interview with WSJ. magazine, the Oscar winner touches upon their romance, the reasons they broke off their rumored engagement and what Penn really was to her two children. Hint: He would not be their adoptive father.

The “Huntsman: Winter’s War” star, 40, told the mag that she always wanted more kids and the 55-year-old actor, who has two kids of his own, knew that. The A-lister actors had already broken up when news that Theron adopted her second child, her newborn daughter August, broke last summer.

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“When you’re with somebody and it comes to kids, you can’t [B.S.],” she said. “And so I was always very honest with Sean that I wanted to have more kids. And he was very supportive.”

While they were dating, rumors ran rampant that her fellow Oscar winner and social activist, whom she’d been friends with for years, was planning to adopt her son Jackson, now 4. Their camps declined to comment on the stories at the time, but it didn’t stop them from being published.

“We were very, very new in a relationship,” Theron said. “The stories saying that Sean was going to adopt Jackson and all of that were not true. It’s not something that happens in 18 months. You can’t do that to a child. So there was an understanding that I was a single mom with a very young boy who I had to put in a situation where he understood that Mommy dates but that he does not have a father, you know what I mean? You have to be very careful and very honest about that stuff. And Sean was great with all of that.”

She added that she was honest about wanting to have more kids. “We had a very clear understanding. He knew that I was thinking about filing for another adoption but that we weren’t filing together,” she said.

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News that the “Mad Max: Fury Road” star split with Penn hit the Internet in June with plenty of speculation about what went awry. One story stood out above others: That Theron “ghosted,” or abruptly cut off off all contact with, the actor.

“There is this need to sensationalize things,” she said of the reports. “When you leave a relationship there has to be some ... crazy story or some crazy drama. And the ... ghosting thing, like literally I still don’t even know what it is. It’s just its own beast. We were in a relationship and then it didn’t work anymore. And we both decided to separate. That’s it.”

And there you have it, straight from the Theron’s mouth.

Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.