Meg Ryan explains her 8-year break from Hollywood
Meg Ryan took a step away from the spotlight for nearly a decade.
The 61-year-old actress candidly explained why she took a long pause from Hollywood after being the "It" girl for years.
"I took a giant break because I felt like there's just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop," she said during a cover interview with People.
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"It's nice to think of it as a job and not a lifestyle. And that is a great way of navigating it for me."
During her eight-year break, the mom-of-two chose to focus on her family. Ryan shares son Jack, 31, with her ex-husband Dennis Quaid and adopted her daughter Daisy, 18, in 2006.
Her breakout role was in 1982 as Betsy Stewart on the soap opera "As the World Turns." Following her television debut, Ryan landed her first major leading role in the 1986 film "Top Gun."
However, Ryan is most known for being the face of beloved romantic comedies, like the 1989 film "When Harry Met Sally."
"When Harry Met Sally" became a box office hit and remains an enduring comedy classic. The character Sally was Ryan's first leading role in a movie and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
In September, Ryan revealed that her children were mortified by her famous fake orgasm scene from the popular film.
In the scene, Ryan's character Sally loudly demonstrates how women can fake reaching sexual climax in front of Billy Crystal's Harry and all the other patrons at New York City's Katz's Deli.
"It's funny, my son just called me this morning and he’s in New York staying at a hotel that’s right across the street from Katz’s Deli. My daughter was here and everybody was on speaker, and they were like, ‘Mom, this is a very unique embarrassment,’" she previously told Carol Burnett during a conversation for Interview magazine.
Ryan went on to become the queen of '90s rom-coms, starring in a number of popular films, including "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail," working alongside Tom Hanks. She was also the lead in "When a Man Loves a Woman,""French Kiss," "City of Angels" and "Kate & Leopold," among others.
Following her hiatus from acting, Ryan will next be seen in the upcoming movie "What Happens Later," which co-stars David Duchovny. The film marks Ryan's first romantic comedy role in 15 years.
In addition to starring in "What Happens Later," Ryan also directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn. In 2015, the actress made her directorial debut with the drama "Ithaca," in which she also starred alongside her son Jack.
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During her Hollywood career, Ryan was involved in a tumultuous love affair with John Mellencamp that lasted 10 years.
After several separations, one engagement and a final breakup in 2019, Mellencamp revealed he still has love in his heart for Hollywood’s "It" girl.
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"I love Meg Ryan. I went with her for ten years," he wrote in an article for Esquire earlier this year. "She doesn’t love me so much. She’s a great girl. I’m just a s---ty boyfriend."
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The singer-songwriter, 71, dated Ryan off and on from 2010 to 2019, fresh off his divorce from third wife Elaine Irwin, whom he had been married to for 18 years.
In 2018, the couple announced they were engaged.
At the time, he told "Today," "I’m engaged... at 67 to a very funny woman. Funniest woman I’ve ever met... One can well imagine, I’m probably not the easiest guy to get along with. So, let’s leave it at that."
However, the couple's relationship would run its course, and they ended their engagement in October.
Despite her break from the limelight, Ryan noted that her new film is a full circle moment as she referenced the late director Nora Ephron, who wrote several of her classic romantic comedies.
"The movies I did with Nora had an operative thing about kismet, like destiny and fate," she recently said to People. "And there’s something really comforting about that."