Charlize Theron Says She Didn’t Ghost Sean Penn, Reveals Truth About Adoption

Charlize Theron shared quite a few intimate details about her life in a recent interview, setting the record straight on several things that have been made murky by rumors and overzealous media since she ended her relationship with Sean Penn.

Theron says that despite what we may read on the covers of gossip mags, she did not “ghost” Sean — meaning she just stopped taking his calls — and that she doesn’t even know what that means. The Mad Max actress pointed out the need for the media to create drama where there is none.

“There is a need to sensationalize things. When you leave a relationship there has to be some f–king crazy story or some crazy drama. And the f–king ghosting thing, like literally, I still don’t even know what it is. It’s just its own beast,” Charlize told WSJ Magazine. “We were in a relationship and then it didn’t work anymore. And we both decided to separate. That’s it.”

Theron didn’t get into details about why the relationship didn’t work, and she didn’t talk about the recent controversy surrounding Penn regarding his interview with El Chapo, either. But she did open up a bit about adopting her second child, because she wanted to clear the air about the role Penn played in it. She’d been thinking about adopting, she said, and she was very open with Penn about her decision and how she wanted it to go. For her, it was about protecting the children.

“We were very, very new in a relationship. The stories that Sean was going to adopt Jackson, and all of that was not true. It’s not something that happens in 18 months. You can’t do that to a child. There was an understanding that I was a single mom with a very young boy who I had to put in a situation where he understood that Mommy dates, but that he does not have a father, you know what I mean? You have to be very careful and very honest about that stuff. And Sean was great with all of that,” Charlize Theron said. “And in my honesty about wanting to have more kids, there was an understanding that a relationship had to go somewhere before it was going to be—what you hope for, which ultimately did not happen. I couldn’t foresee that, but that stuff takes time and I think it’s my responsibility as a mother to protect my child from that. And we had a very clear understanding. He knew that I was thinking about filing for another adoption, but that we weren’t filing together.”

Theron took some heat recently for her parenting skills when she was photographed by paparazzi “dragging” her son Jackson in a parking lot during an epic meltdown. While Charlize was called “monster mom” by some media outlets, many who saw the photos simply recognized that Jackson appeared to be doing the classic “lose the armpits” move that small kids are famous for when they’re melting down and don’t want to be picked up.

Charlize Theron’s next film project is The Huntsman: Winter’s War with Emily Blunt. The two play sisters, with some of the focus shifted to Blunt’s character, Freya.

According to ComicBook.com, “Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen—including Eric (Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Chastain)—only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love.”

[Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images]