Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins, best known as THE Hannibal Lecter, first met his now-wife Stella Arroyave in 2001. Two years later, the two tied the knot and vowed to be with each other through all the good and the bad times. They have been honoring that promise until today.
The Meeting
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Hopkins and Arroyave’s first meeting felt like a magical and romantic scene straight out of the big screen.
It was 2001. Arroyave was working as an antique dealer at a Los Angeles antique shop when Hopkins entered, looking for a piece of furniture that would fit his home. She walked to him and greeted him, except to him, it looked and felt like she was dancing toward him.
That moment made an impression on him, and they ended up dating.
During that time, he was still technically married to his second wife of almost three decades, Jennifer Lynton. However, as Hopkins explained to BBC News, he and Lynton had long drifted apart at that point and were already living separate lives. So, there was no conflict on that part.
Then, a year into dating Arroyave, his divorce from Lynton was finalized. Before Lynton, he was married to his fellow actor Petronella Barker with whom he shared a daughter named Abigail.
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Before his second official divorce, the Oscar-winner was already in a “shutdown state.” Speaking with the Evening Standard in 2011, he shared that he had been so for some years. When he met Arroyave, he said, “I didn’t feel shut down at that time. I felt I was quite happy. But I was dealing with slight depression.”
He couldn’t bring himself to trust anyone, let alone women. He also said in a previous interview that he wasn’t very good with relationships with anyone. “I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.” Additionally, it was Arroyave who really changed that for him.
The couple dated for two years before finally tying the knot at Hopkins’ gorgeous clifftop mansion in Malibu, California, on March 1, 2003. Among the celebrities in attendance include Nicole Kidman, Winona Ryder, Jodie Foster, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Steven Spielberg.
The Married Life
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After marrying, Anthony Hopkins’s wife Stella Arroyave entered the entertainment industry and joined him. They have actually collaborated on several projects, including “Slipstream,” “The Human Stain,” and her directorial debut “Elyse.” The two have supported each other in their film endeavors and respected each other’s position in the space.
Aside from film, Arroyave also encouraged Hopkins in his other passions, such as painting. It started with small ones as party favors for their wedding. Then it grew into big ones, getting featured in different galleries all over the globe. The actor was definitely grateful to her for opening this part of his life and for having more confidence in him than he did in himself.
Outside of work and leisure, and simply as a married couple, Hopkins shared that they love to go on drives together and share their “road trip music of choice,” mostly country-western (Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton). Occasionally, he indulges her with gifts and flowers, to which she would affectionately respond by making him breakfast in bed.
Anthony Hopkins and his wife, Stella Arroyave, have stood the test of time. According to the actor, she was and remains to be a wonderful woman. “She’s very good for me, my wife, because she slows me down.” He also said that she would always wake up happy and positive, and because of her, he learned to take life as it came.
