Red carpets are usually a cause for celebration, but Sean Penn appeared to miss the memo ahead of his latest in France on Saturday evening.
The Hollywood star looked like he would rather be anywhere else while attending the 17th Film Festival Lumiere opening ceremony in Lyon.
Even the presence of his glamorous younger girlfriend Valeria Nicov couldn’t raise a smile as they walked the red carpet hand-in-hand.
Penn was making a rare public appearance with the Moldovan actress, 30, who looked stunning in a midnight blue gown with a plunging neckline.
For his part, the actor looked appropriately smart in a coordinated black two-piece suit and matching T-shirt as the couple took to their seats at the annual event.
Nicov grew up in Moldovan capital Chișinău before moving to France, where she is currently based, and has previously starred in hit Netflix show Emily In Paris alongside Lily Collins.
Red carpets are usually a cause for celebration, but Sean Penn appeared to miss the memo ahead of his latest in France on Saturday evening
The Hollywood star looked like he would rather be anywhere else while attending the 17th Film Festival Lumiere opening ceremony with his girlfriend, Valeria Nicov (pictured)
Her relationship with the older Penn comes three years after his separation from third and latest wife Leila George, 32 – a marriage that lasted for just 15 months.
He went public with Valeria just months after sharing that he was ‘thrilled every day’ to be single and wanted only the sort of romance that would allow him to be ‘free’ within it.
‘I’m just free,’ he told the New York Times. ‘If I’m going to be in a relationship, I’m still going to be free, or I’m not going to be in it, and I’m not going to be hurting.’
In a profile with the paper’s longtime columnist Maureen Dowd, Penn predicted: ‘I don’t sense I’ll have my heart broken by romance again.’
The actor’s first marriage to pop legend Madonna lasted for three years before they divorced in 1989, and although they had an infamously tempestuous romance, the former couple have become friends since their split.
He was later married to Forrest Gump star Robin Wright, with whom he shares daughter Dylan – who at 33 is older than Valeria – and his son Hopper, 30 and the same age as his current girlfriend.
Penn exchanged vows with his second wife in 1996, and the couple had multiple splits and reconciliations before their 20-year romance finally fell apart for good in 2010.
They have also managed to be friendly co-parents, though Penn has confessed it took ‘quite a while’ and ‘a lot of drama’ for them to reach an amicable equation.
Penn was making a rare public appearance with the Moldovan actress, who looked stunning in a midnight blue gown with a plunging neckline
For his part, the actor looked appropriately smart in a coordinated black two-piece suit and matching T-shirt as the couple took to their seats at the annual event
Shortly before his latest divorce was finalised, the actor told Hollywood Authentic that he was still ‘so in love’ with estranged wife Leila, the daughter of Vincent D’Onofrio and Greta Scacchi.
He admitted to having ‘f***ed up the marriage,’ saying: ‘We were married technically for one year, but for five years, I was a very neglectful guy.’
‘I was not a f***ing cheat or any of that obvious s***, but I allowed myself to think that my place in so many other things was so important,’ he said.
‘And that included my place in being totally depressed and driven to alcohol and Ambien at 11 o’clock in the morning, by watching the news, by watching the Trump era, by watching it and just despairing.’
He noted that ‘beautiful, incredibly kind, imaginative, talented young women who get married to a man quite senior to them in years, they don’t actually love it when they get up from their peaceful night’s sleep and their new husband is on the couch, having been up since four, watching all of the cr*p that’s going on in the world and has decided that 10:30 in the morning is a good time to neck a double vodka tonic and an Ambien and say: “Good morning, honey. I’m going to pass out for a few hours and get away from all this s***.”‘
Nicov’s relationship with the older Penn comes three years after his separation from third and latest wife Leila George (pictured) – a marriage that lasted for just 15 months
