Natalie Portman revealed that meeting best-selling recording artist and businesswoman Rihanna at a Paris fashion event last year helped her cope with her divorce from choreographer Benjamin Millepied after 11 years of marriage.
The couple met while working on the set of 2009's Black Swan. They reside in Paris where they share two children, son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 7.
According to People magazine, Portman's divorce was finalized in March after she quietly filed last year following news reports of Millepied having an extramarital affair.
Upon reflection on a difficult time, Portman attributed her healing process from her divorce to her run-in with Rihanna for the first time at the 2023 Dior Haute Couture show.
In viral footage of the two women mutually getting starstruck, Rihanna told Portman she was “One of the hottest b*tches in Hollywood forever," to which the fangirling Portman replied:
"I'm gonna faint. I'm gonna black out."
On Monday's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Oscar-winning actor told Fallon about how meeting Rihanna at the Dior show on January 22, a few weeks before Portman's divorce was finalized, was "an amazing experience" for her.
She continued:
"I think every woman going through a divorce should get to have Rihanna say to her that she's a bad b*tch."
The studio audience cheered in response to her empowering statement, prompting Fallon to rise to his feet and applaud, saying, "You're right. That is correct."
You can watch the moment here.
Rihanna Helped Natalie Portman Deal with Her Divorce by Calling Her the "Hottest B*tch"youtu.be
The 43-year-old added:
"It was exactly what I needed."
After the host shared the viral footage with the audience, Portman noted that the interaction with the music icon was a "formative moment" in her life.
Social media users loved watching the fabulous female figures immediately hitting it off and embracing each other.
The Tonight Show appearance was the first time Portman publicly addressed her divorce.
Amidst speculation surrounding the dissolution of her marriage, she told Vanity Fair in February:
“It’s terrible, and I have no desire to contribute to it.”
The May December actor will be seen in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lady in the Lake, a miniseries adaptation of Laura Lippman's novel of the same name, where Portman will play a 1960s housewife-turned-investigative journalist.
The miniseries will be followed by the release of another Apple TV+ project called Fountain of Youth, a new heist adventure film directed by Guy Ritchie and written by James Vanderbilt.
