The Spanish actor is not just dating a calmer person but has adopted calmness into his lifestyle by leaving LA.
People change from decade to decade. The people who were fiery and energetic in their 30s and 40s may prefer a calmer life in their 50s and later. Who we are and what we like aren't static and that applies to the kind of people we fall for too. For Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, the divorce from Melanie Griffith was life-changing in more ways than one.
Banderas, 60, and Griffith, 63, were married for almost 20 years and when they parted ways in 2015, he left his old life completely. A year after the divorce, he left Los Angeles for Surrey, UK, where he bought a £2.4 million five-bedroom mansion. He left his high-profile lifestyle in Hollywood and instead opted for a quieter future, which shows that the only thing that kept him in the US was his family. The actor now lives with his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, who is an investment banker.
The Mask of Zorro actor also has homes in Spain and an apartment in New York, which has a view of Central Park. He spends time between his three homes, according to Mirror UK. Now, he just wants a calmer life compared to his old one.
The Once Upon a Time in Mexico actor told the Post Magazine, "I was married for 20 years, based in the US, and of course the country has given me a lot. But the kids are grown up now and I am just not attached there on a personal level." His daughter with ex-wife Griffith, Stella, is 23, his two stepchildren, Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson is 30 and Alexander is 35.
"I have a home on Central Park, in New York, but homes in Spain, too, and it felt like the perfect time for me to get back to Europe. This return had to happen," he said. "This house gives me the simplicity and freedom I need in my life at the moment. I find Surrey magical. I am not a party person any more, so I have the space and peace to write and really get inside my own head - I am working on several scripts. I go cycling in the woods, and everyone in Cobham, Weybridge and Esher is incredibly friendly. Above all, I am surrounded by nature. I love watching the deer and foxes that come to my garden," he added.
The simplicity he sought in his home was also something he found in his partner, who introduced calmness into his life. Compared to fiery Griffith, whose charm had captivated him, he is with someone more "discreet."
"She is a very discreet woman, very calm, very rational and almost nothing bothers her. I think I would not have got on so well with her at another time in my life, when Melanie’s effervescence was still intoxicating and I was very attracted to that whole world," he told Mail Online. The actor also boasted about his girlfriend saying that she's incredibly beautiful and speaks seven languages.
He even credited her for saving his life, quite literally. In January 2019, he suffered a heart attack and she was right by her side. "The night before that I had this event, my girlfriend, she had a headache and we didn't have anything in the house. So she went out to buy something, a pain killer or whatever," he recalled, as per Hola Magazine. "[Nicole] bought this aspirin, which is the only thing that she found and she found the maximum one, I think it was five milligrams. She got some water, some other stuff, and at the time that she was at the cashier to pay the girl that was working there, she said, 'You just dropped that thing over there,' and it was the aspirin."
"The next morning, when I started having the symptoms and I clearly knew what was going on, she put one of those aspirins inside of my tongue and that saved my life," the Assassins actor continued. "So I had a second chance, and some stuff changed in my life, since then."
He started focussing on things that were really important to him and touched his heart, like his work and daughter afterward. "You put attention to the real things. My daughter is the real thing, my friends, my family, and my vocation as an actor. In a way, this is very, it's probably stupid to say this, but it's probably one of the best things that happened in my life," he said.
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/antonio-banderas-quit-la-live-22496862
