Actress Rachel Bilson spoke candidly about her ex Hayden Christensen on Wednesday and their relationship as co-parents. Bilson and Christensen were together for years before and after the birth of their daughter in 2014, and today they continue to raise her together in despite breaking up in 2017. During a promotional event for 21Seeds’ collaboration with The O.C., Bilson told PEOPLE that “Everything’s good” between her and Christensen.
“Everything’s in a really good place,” she said, adding that their daughter “is so beautifully flourishing and has the support completely surrounding her from every side.” Bilson and Christen have worked hard to give their daughter privacy in spite of their celebrity status, but today we know that her name is Briar Rose and she is approaching her 10th birthday this fall. Bilson said that Briar is nervous about growing up.
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“Oh my god, it’s crazy. She doesn’t want to get old,” the 42-year-old said. “She likes being young. She’s not one of those kids that just wants to speed it up and have a car and all that.” Bilson said that she is proud of her daughter for being fundamentally “kind,” and she is pleased that they still have a close mother-daughter relationship. She said: “It’s so crazy, we’re pretty inseparable.”
Bilson and Christensen met in 2006 while filming the sci-fi action movie Jumper, where they played childhood sweethearts reunited for a high-stakes romance that involved teleporting around the globe. At the time, Bilson was near the end of her run as Summer Roberts on The O.C., while Christensen had just wrapped up his time as Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
The two kept their relationship as private as possible over the years, so the details on the timeline are not publicly available. It’s unclear when exactly things got romantic, but they were photographed together by paparazzi several times in 2007. In February of 2009 Bilson was spotted openly wearing an engagement ring, but she and Christensen never made a public announcement about it. In August of 2010, a rep for Bilson told PEOPLE that the engagement had been called off, but later that year the two reconciled and got back together.
Finally, in September of 2017 a source close to the couple told Us Weekly that they had split up for good. At the time, insiders said that they were simply on the outs, with no specifics disclosed. They mentioned that Bilson was spending most of her time in Los Angeles, while Christensen was living primarily in Toronto. However, since then Christensen has seen a major career resurgence in the Star Wars franchise, so the family may be closer together these days.
