Why Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett Split: A Look Back Clutch Fire

As two of the hottest young stars of the early aughts, Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett made total sense on paper. The couple were rarely photographed together during their low-key but red-hot relationship, despite going strong for almost two years. Now, 20 years on from when they went public in July 2005, let’s find out what happened …

How It Began

These two got together in 2005 via that time-honored Hollywood tradition: they fell in love on a movie set! The film in question was thriller The Black Dahlia, in which they played love interests. Johansson, now 40, was just 20 at the time, while Hartnett, now 46, was 26.

Despite — or perhaps due to — their romantic connection, Hartnett said shooting sex scenes was pretty awkward. “It was very difficult for me,” he said on the promo trail in 2006. “Those scenes are eternally awkward because you got a bunch of sweaty dudes sitting and watching you, and you’re just hoping to make it intimate, make it real.”

As soon as filming had wrapped, the pair were spotted together on some pretty low-key dates in New York, but it was at the Live 8 concert in London in July that they went public. “I really do try to keep my personal life private,” Johansson said after the show. “But yes, I was there with somebody who is very lovely.”

How Long It Lasted

Halfway through 2006, there were rumors of a breakup, but Hartnett’s camp denied it to the New York Daily News and, within days, they had been spotted together again, leaving a spa after a couples massage. They even moved in together in New York, as well as vacationing at a luxury resort in Jamaica. Yup, these two were living the dream … or were they?

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Around the same time, Hartnett spoke philosophically about relationships. “There’s always room to grow,” he said in a video interview. “There’s just a lot of stuff to do, and you can’t be the best at relationships already at 27.”

Meanwhile, Johansson sparked headlines around the same time when she told Cosmo that she didn’t believe “human beings are monogamous creatures by nature.”

Despite the controversy, they persevered for a while before the split was finally confirmed early in 2007.

How It Ended

This romance came at a busy time in both of their careers, so that often-heard line of “conflicting schedules” is what ultimately broke them up.

“It was difficult spending so much time apart,” Hartnett told the Mirror in January 2007. “At the end of the day, we’re just ordinary people, and it didn’t work.”

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What They Said About Each Other

While the pair were largely low-key, they did occasionally take the opportunity to gush about each other in interviews. “Josh is very sweet,” Johansson told Allure in 2006. “He’s a good boy. A great person. I’m very lucky, and I’m very happy.”

And on the Black Dahlia publicity tour, she praised his acting talent. “Josh is such a wonderful actor,” she said. “I’ve always admired him and felt that he was a very, very talented young actor. He’s very intense when he works. He’s very focused, very passionate about what he’s doing, and I really appreciate that.”

Hartnett was equally appreciative of his love. “Scarlett is intuitive, open, and present on the film set,” he said. “She’s a lot of fun to work with. She makes everything lighter than you would expect. Everybody has a little bit of a spring in their step when Scarlett’s on set, but she keeps the work at the forefront of her mind, and she does terrific work.”

Hartnett gave one spicier interview during their relationship too, telling More magazine about a risqué gift he’d received from a friend that Johansson may or may not have benefitted from. “A really dirty friend of mine gave me a book on tantric sex for my birthday,” he revealed. “I studied it to see what all the fuss was about. It’s not easy but it’s all good.”

He added: “Sex rocks! Sex is really cool! I did try and go without it for a while once, but it didn’t last long.”

What They Say Now

A few months after the breakup, Hartnett told In Touch about the challenges of long-distance love. “I’ve been in situations where dealing with the long-distance aspect of the relationship has destroyed the other person,” he said. “Seeing their significant other in the arms of a beautiful actress is difficult. It’s hard to be like, ‘Oh, that’s just work.’ It is, but you’re on location with this other person for months, so there’s jealousy.”

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It took until 2014 for Hartnett to allude to their relationship again, telling Elle that dating costars wasn’t always the best decision. “I don’t recommend it to young actors,” he said. “You can make a lot of enemies in the business that way, but when you work with somebody every day, it’s like trial dating. You develop a fantasy about them. It doesn’t always work out, does it?”

Key Relationship Takeaways

Ultimately, these two were very young and pretty new to the madness of Hollywood when they got together, and, while it was fun while it lasted, it was a few years before either of them were truly ready to settle down.

After the split, Johansson  was briefly married to Ryan Reynolds, but they split in 2010 and divorced in 2011. She was then linked to Sean Penn before marrying journalist Romain Dauriac (father of her daughter Rose) in 2014, but split two years later. Finally, she married SNL’s Colin Jost in 2020, and welcomed son Cosmo the following year. And it seems like third time’s a charm: this relationship sounds much more mature than those that haven’t worked out in the past.

“He’s very optimistic, easygoing, funny, nice and those are the qualities that really drew me to him,” she told Parade in 2020. “Understanding what those fundamental things are that you need in a partner is like a must I think for longevity … I need to be with a compassionate person. That’s a game changer and a life lesson.”

Meanwhile, Hartnett threw himself into dating following the breakup, before finding long-term love with British actress Tamsin Egerton in 2012. The couple married in 2021 and share three children.