Highlights
- Philip Seymour Hoffman's relationship with Mimi O'Donnell was often kept private, but there were some struggles in their relationship revealed after his death.
- Hoffman expressed his love for O'Donnell in his journals, but also admitted to being in contact with another woman, causing tension in their relationship.
- O'Donnell has spoken about their relationship, describing a loving and supportive partnership, but also acknowledging Hoffman's addiction struggles and the challenges they faced together.
Philip Seymour Hoffman's death in 2014 was incredibly upsetting. He was only 46 years old when he passed away from an overdose. The legendary actor was beloved for playing Truman Capote in 2005. He also starred in movies as different as the religious drama Doubt, the family tearjerker Synecdoche, New York, and the action-packed The Hunger Games franchise, which featured many great actors.
Everyone knew about Philip Seymour Hoffman's immense talent, but his private life was often kept under wraps. After the actor died, it came out that Hoffman didn't leave money to his three kids. There are also many details that have come out about Hoffman's relationship with Mimi O'Donnell, his girlfriend of more than a decade.
The Truth About Philip Seymour Hoffman's Relationship With Mimi O'Donnell
While Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mimi O'Donnell weren't quite as private as Michael Cera and his wife Nadine, their life together wasn't very public, either.
The couple dated starting in 2001 until his sad death in 2014, and they had three kids named Willa, Tallulah, and Cooper.
The couple absolutely loved each other and whenever they were interviewed, they expressed their happiness at having a family. But after the actor's death, a few new stories hinted at some harder times in their relationship.
According to The Daily Mail, Philip Seymour Hoffman kept journals that the police in New York located in his apartment after his passing. He wrote about how he loved his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell, but he had been in contact with another woman who he liked.
Hoffman didn't explain who he was thinking about, but he said he was "caught in between."
It's unknown if Hoffman told O'Donnell about this situation or if she found out later. It's also unclear if he and O'Donnell were still together when he died. According to Page Six, she asked him to live somewhere else because of his addiction. A source said, “It was known that he was struggling to stay sober, and [girlfriend Mimi O’Donnell] had given him some tough love and told him he needed some time away from the kids and to get straight again."
There has been no confirmation if that is true, though.
Philip Seymour Hoffman often showed how much he loved being a father when he interacted with journalists. There's one story in particular that is really sweet.
Anthony Breznican wrote an article for Entertainment Weekly about much he enjoyed meeting Hoffman during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The writer shared an incredible story of telling the actor that he and his wife were considering starting a family but unsure.
Hoffman told him, “You don’t ‘make time’ to be a mom and dad. When you have a kid, you figure out how to make time for work and all the other stuff. All the priorities you have now totally shift, whether you want them to or not.” When they saw each other again, Hoffman emphasized his point.
When Breznican and Hoffman talked again when some time had passed, Breznican had a baby son and daughter who was four. Hoffman was thrilled to hear the good news and said “I was right, right? I’ve got three of my own now.”
What Did Philip Seymour Hoffman's Partner Mimi O'Donnell Say About The Late Actor?
When Philip Seymour Hoffman died, Mimi O'Donnell stayed quiet for a few years. This is easy to understand since she was processing the loss and needed to be with her three children. When a couple years had passed, she began speaking more about her late partner.
In December 2017, Mimi O'Donnell wrote about Philip Seymour Hoffman for Vogue. She was incredibly raw about their relationship and offered up some details that fans hadn't heard before.
O'Donnell wrote that Hoffman was the director for In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, a play at the Labyrinth Theater Company in 1999. She applied for the costume designer job and he was impressed by her background. She was currently at Saturday Night Live and had worked in the field for a long time.
She shared that her sister told her "You're going to marry him" because she sounded like she was in love from that moment. However, they didn't begin dating until 2001. She described having dinner in the West Village and telling him that she wanted to be exclusive. He felt the same way and said "Yeah, I'm all in."
O'Donnell described a loving relationship where they loved being parents and being together. She said that two weeks was the most amount of time that they wanted to be apart. But things were very sad at times, including when Hoffman said that he was going to have some drinks. She knew that was a bad idea.
O'Donnell wrote, "From the beginning, Phil was very frank about his addictions. He told me about his period of heavy drinking and experimenting with heroin in his early 20s, and his first rehab at 22. He was in therapy and AA, and most of his friends were in the program."
She explained that she was aware that her partner was heading down a dangerous and scary path in the final year of his life. She also wrote that she had been a fan of the actor's before they met each other. She loved his "willingness to make himself so vulnerable and to play f*cked-up characters with such honesty and heart."
In an interview with The New York Times in 2015, Mimi O'Donnell shared that she felt that it was time to work again in the theater. She and Philip Seymour Hoffman attended a lot of plays during their relationship. She was honest about still being emotional, which is helpful for anyone missing a loved one and still feeling an acute sense of loss. She also said, "I guess I would say that, after a year has passed, I’m able to function, if that’s the right word, or be in the world a little bit differently.”
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