Antonio Banderas (Málaga, 65 years old) and Melanie Griffith (New York, 68 years old) met at the 1989 Oscars gala. He attended with Pedro Almodóvar as a representative of the film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; she went with her then-husband, Don Johnson, and served as a presenter for one of the categories. “We arrived at the red carpet and suddenly I see a blonde woman who looked very familiar because I had seen her in movies, but at that moment I didn’t remember her name. So I asked Pedro: ‘Who is she?’, ‘Who is she?’, ‘What’s her name?’. And Pedro told me: ‘Antonio, it’s Melanie Griffith’. And I said: ‘That’s it, that’s it. Oh my God,” Banderas told Vulture in 2019. The definitive spark between them would arise years later, during the filming of the romantic comedy Two Much (1995). They married in May 1996 and in September of the same year welcomed their daughter, Stella (29 years old). “I remember those years as an effervescent and really beautiful time,” he confessed in the cited interview.
Read more Paula Echevarría’s message for her birthday: “I turn 49 in a difficult moment and with much pain”
The marriage formed by the acting couple ended in 2014, but their relationship has never cooled down. “She is one of my best friends, if not the best,” the actor has now acknowledged in an interview with People published this Thursday, August 6. The man from Málaga, who is in full promotion of the film Tony—a biopic about the famous chef Anthony Bourdain premiering this Friday—has opened up candidly about the friendship that binds him to the mother of his daughter. “The thing is that, when we were a couple and when we separated, we were always very honest,” he considers. “We ended our relationship in a pleasant way, which was very important for the children and for us,” he recalls.
Stella is Banderas’s only daughter, but Griffith already had two children from two previous relationships: Alexander Bauer and Dakota Johnson —a well-known actress who became famous especially as the lead in the Fifty Shades of Grey saga—. “She is an incredible mother,” Banderas assures People about his ex-partner. Regarding their children, he says he enjoys watching them grow “and become good people.” “When I go to Los Angeles, we get together and have a lot of fun. We laugh and simply… it’s something very healthy, and it was very healthy for our children,” he details about his relationship with Griffith.
The actor from The Mask of Zorro or Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! currently lives between Málaga and Madrid with his partner of more than a decade, Dutch businesswoman and model Nicole Kimpel (45 years old). Still, his professional career in Hollywood also requires him to spend time in Los Angeles, where his daughter resides. Stella Banderas was one of the main protagonists of the celebrity press in October 2025, when she married the American businessman of Polish descent Alex Gruszynski (29 years old). The couple said “I do” at a luxury hotel in Valladolid, a wedding that sparked much talk, partly due to the friendly public reunion between Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith. “The key to our friendship is the responsibility as parents and the true affection we have for each other. If a relationship has given you the best thing in your life, like my daughter, you can’t allow it to end in resentment,” the man from Málaga assured ¡Hola! at the time.
View this post on Instagram
Beyond the images of the gothic-style wedding covered exclusively by ¡Hola!, Banderas again shared an unusual family photo on April 27 on his Instagram profile —with 4.3 million followers—. The snapshot shows Stella with her now husband and their parents sharing laughs on a sofa. “A beautiful and fun moment yesterday in Los Angeles with my son-in-law, Alex; my daughter, Stella; and my ex-wife and eternal friend, Melanie,” wrote the actor. Griffith, generally more discreet when talking about her ex-husband, responded with six heart emojis.
Read more Rodri’s plot twist: from the great offer from Madrid to choosing Barça
