For the first time since director Rupert Sanders’ affair with actress Kristen Stewart went public, the woman caught in the middle of it all, Liberty Ross, speaks out.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Liberty speaks about her husband’s betrayal. “It was horrible. It was really the worst, really the worst.”;
The paparazzi photos of Rupert and Kristen kissing surfaced July 2012. Liberty says Rupert sat her down 20 hours before the photos went public and admitted to what she was about to see. The photos showed Rupert and Kristen kissing and hugging on the side of a road in Los Angeles and went viral after first appearing in Us Weekly.
“I have no words to describe what we went through,” says Liberty. “But I think, for me, something always has to completely die for there to be a rebirth. And, for me, I feel like I’m going through a rebirth.”
The British model turned actress reflects back to when her and Rupert were first married in London. The couple started dating when Liberty was 18-years-old and her model career had just started taking off.
“We used to joke and call Rupert ‘the Hand,’ because he was always chopped off in all the pictures we did together,”; she says.
Rupert and Liberty moved to Los Angeles so Rupert could focus on his career. And while Liberty had the best intentions to let Rupert have his moment to shine she felt alienated by the city.
“I went from really the high end of it all, and then I’m living on a hilltop in Hollywood Hills, breast-feeding.”
When Rupert landed Snow White and the Huntsman Liberty says she felt like they had achieved what they had come to L.A. for. “I was so proud of him, what he’d done—what we’d done. We were a team, and the movie was made out of love.”
The movie was also what would undo their marriage. Rupert wanted to reconcile with his wife, but Liberty knew it was over. “I’m not a quitter,” she says. “I’ve done everything I could to be the perfect wife and mother and really support my husband. But I just didn’t have any more to give, you know?”
Although the cheating scandal was hard for Liberty, she admits, in retrospect it wasn’t the only thing that split them up. The pursuit of fame had corrupted their relationship. “…Really, I had times when I felt very lonely, very disconnected from Rupert. We’d lost our real connection.”
