Maïwenn’s Dating History: She Welcomed Two Kids from Two Relationships

Mononymous French director Maïwenn’s dating history is marked by the joy of motherhood, having welcomed two children from two different relationships. Alongside her parenting journey, she has also made headlines for her recent red-carpet outing with Johnny Depp.

Maïwenn became a child star in French cinema in the eighties in films such as “L’Été meurtrier,” translated to “One Deadly Summer,” and made her Hollywood debut in “The Fifth Element.” She has written and starred in several films, seven of which she directed.

Her latest feature, “Jeanne Du Barry,” was selected to open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Most of her work has autobiographical details. Her 2015 film “Mon roi” is believed to be about her second husband. The film translated to “My King” was about a woman in a relationship with a narcissist.

Maïwenn and actor Johnny Depp recently stepped out on the red carpet, where they had fun posing for the cameras. The actor and his ex-wife Amber Heard’s names were in every other entertainment news headline in 2020 and 2022 due to two court cases, in London and Virginia, respectively, concerning Depp’s alleged abuse of Heard.

In a legal battle that unfolded over the years, “The Lone Ranger” actor faced contrasting outcomes. While he lost a 2020 libel case against The Sun, which labeled him a wife beater, he emerged victorious in a 2022 defamation case against his ex-wife. The latter case revolved around an op-ed she penned, leading a Virginia jury to rule in his favor.

With the high-profile case closed less than a year ago, the former Hollywood heavyweight not only made his return to one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, he also starred in the film that opened the event, “Jeanne Du Barry.”

Arriving 15 minutes late for the film’s Cannes press conference on May 17, 2023, the actor was asked if he feels boycotted by Hollywood. He said he does not, adding, “I don’t have much further need for Hollywood myself.”

Depp also mused on the term “comeback,” something many people have used in conjunction with his name, as it was his first film since the defamation trial:

“I keep wondering about the word comeback because I didn’t go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I live about 45 minutes away. So yeah, maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time.”

The woman who gave him his shot at his so-called “comeback” is Maïwenn, the writer, director, and co-star of “Jeanne Du Barry.” During the photocall the same day as the press conference, Maïwenn and Depp gave photographers a display at odds with the outcry surrounding the film’s inclusion in the event.

Maïwenn’s on-screen partner giggled with her as they played with their accessories while striking poses. In one memorable photograph, the director has her arm playfully around her co-star’s shoulders as his silver-framed aviators hang at an angle at the top of his nose.

Maïwenn Le Besco was born on April 17, 1976, in Les Lilas, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, east of Paris, to Catherine Belkhodja, an actress of Algerian descent on her mother’s side.

Her husband left her for the film’s lead actress, former model Milla Jovovich.

Maïwenn revealed in a 2009 profile that she became an actress to please her mother, who had hopes of her becoming a star. As a child actress, she came into the orbit of director Luc Besson, born March 18, 1959, when she was 12, but they reportedly only entered a romantic relationship when she was 15.

They married when she was 16 and had a daughter, Shanna, that same year. The couple made their home in Beverly Hills, California. Until that point, she would later say, she had felt like she was living for her mother and four siblings.

Maïwenn has repeatedly said that her first husband’s film “Léon: The Professional” was based on their relationship. The 1994 movie starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman centered around the romantic relationship between a 30-year-old hitman and a 12-year-old girl named Mathilda, the same age Maïwenn was when she met Besson.

At 20, she took on a small role in Besson’s film “The Fifth Element,” released in 1997. She had played the alien Diva Plavalaguna. Unfortunately, their marriage did not last as her husband left her for the film’s lead actress, former model Milla Jovovich, whom he later married.

The “Our Ties” actress’s loyalty to Besson is believed to be the motivation behind her actions in early 2023, as she had reportedly assaulted a journalist.

She had assaulted Edwy Plenel, the founder and editor-at-large of an independent newspaper, Mediapart. The paper had published a damning investigation into the rape and sexual assault accusations against Besson by nine women.

Maïwenn had allegedly approached Plenel in a restaurant, grabbed him by the hair, and spat on him before exiting the building. The editor was left “traumatized by the incident.” The director confirmed the assault in a television interview but said she was not ready to discuss it.

The “Love Is the Perfect Crime” actress married Jean-Yves Le Fur in December 2002. The businessman was previously linked to Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and the model Karen Mulder.

During their brief marriage, they had one son, Diego Le Fur, in 2004, the same year they divorced. Jean-Yves is a producer and publisher with links to the fashion world.

In August 2021, the then 17-year-old Diego did a tennis-themed photo shoot in Saint-Tropez for Official Riviera. The teenager who shares his passion for the sport with his dad hoped that he would one day seed amongst the top 100 tennis players in the world, naming Swedish great Björn Borg as his idol.

On May 16, 2023, he walked the red carpet with his mother before the Cannes screening for “Jeanne Du Barry.” In the film, he made his big screen debut as Louis XVI, the husband of Marie Antoinette.